AUTHOR=Micheluzzi Valentina , Navarese Eliano Pio , Merella Pierluigi , Talanas Giuseppe , Viola Graziana , Bandino Stefano , Idini Chiara , Burrai Francesco , Casu Gavino TITLE=Clinical application of virtual reality in patients with cardiovascular disease: state of the art JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine VOLUME=11 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2024.1356361 DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2024.1356361 ISSN=2297-055X ABSTRACT=

Virtual reality offers a multisensory experience to patients, allowing them to hear, watch, and interact in a virtual environment. Immersive virtual reality is particularly suitable for the purpose of completely isolating patients from the external environment to transport them away from the suffering related to the disease. On this state of the art, we summarize the available literature on the effectiveness of virtual reality on various physical and psychological outcomes in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Virtual reality has been employed in the cardiovascular field in various settings such as cardiac rehabilitation, interventional cardiology, and cardiac surgery. This technology offers promising opportunities to improve several outcomes related to cardiovascular disease, but further research is needed to entirely capture its benefits and to standardize the intervention.