Effectivity of Nintendo Wii as Rehabilitation Therapy in Post Stroke Patients: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Post stroke patients need medical rehabilitation to live an independent life. Nintendo Wii technology presents an alternative choice that is quite safe, feasible, and has a high potential in rehabilitating & restoring motor function in post stroke patients. Although it has been widely used as adjunct therapy in stroke rehabilitation facilities throughout the world, only a few acknowledge its effectivity in post-stroke patients. This study aims to conduct a systematic review in order to identify and assess the results used in evaluating Nintendo Wii technology as rehabilitation therapy for stroke patients. Thus, the study used for this research is systematic review. Materials included in this study are research/studies found in NCBI, PubMed, Cochrane and other relevant online databases. From this research, it is found that Virtual Reality (VR) such as Nintendo Wii considered as an additional rehabilitation therapy that provides a significant improvement in various aspects of exercise therapy, such as; balance; walking ability; statistical and dynamic strengths; motivation as well as socialization; and recovery of physical function in stroke patients. Nintendo Wii can also be used safely in stroke patients and there have been no reports of side effects from this therapy.

Nintendo® Wii Therapy Improves Upper Extremity Motor Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

“…Meldrum, D et al (2012) found that approximately 88% of patients would include Nintendo Wii in their future treatments [28]. Furthermore, the use of NWT did not seem to produce side effects, unlike the dizziness, nausea, headache, etc., that seems could appear in immersive VR [29,30]. In addition, NWT is a low-cost, commercialized, and useful tool that allows the training of flexibility, balance, strength, and coordination in safe environments, such as homes or clinical centers [31][32][33].…”

“…We found that, in those reviews, NWT was the most widely used type of VR intervention, and extensive scientific reports have been written about it. Previous reviews assessed the effect of NWT in improving balance in children with CP [25,37], and in other neurological diseases, such as Parkinson's disease [38,39] or stroke [29,40]. Thus, in comparison with other reviews that assessed all non-immersive VR devices, our aim was to assess whether NWT, as one of the most non-immersive VR devices available, had an effect on improving UE motor function abilities in children with CP.…”