Medical Resort Treatment Extended with Modern Feedback Exercises Using Virtual Reality Improve Postural Control in Breast Cancer Survivors. Preliminary Study

Abstract

Introduction: Women with breast cancer have an increasing chance of survival for many years. Multimodal, extremely effective but also aggressive treatment, often leads to disorders of neuromuscular excitability and physical fitness of the patients. Therefore, when planning the physiotherapy process of women treated for breast cancer, one should look for the most effective methods of improvement with broad neurostimulatory and neuromodulatory effects. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the possibilities of using virtual reality exercises in therapy. Aim: The study was to understand the impact of medical resort treatment extended with modern feedback exercises using virtual reality to improve postural control in breast cancer survivors. M aterial and Methods: A clinical, pilot, non-controlled study was conducted at the Solanki Medical Resort in Inowroclaw. 46 women aged 36 to 63 completed the study (mean 51.67 ± 6.62 years). The patients participated in spa therapy for 3 weeks. For basic medical treatment, to improve postural control, physical exercises using feedback based on virtual reality were introduced. Postural control tests performed on the stabilometric platform were used to assess the progress of therapy. Results: In the assessment of dynamic postural control, the length of the center of foot pressure (COP) movement path before the treatment was on average 278.28 cm (± 147.13) and after treatment shortened to 209.60 cm (± 86.49) which was statistically significant (p = 0.0083). In the assessment of static postural control, no statistically significant differences were found between the length of the COP pathway before treatment compared to the condition before treatment (p> 0.05). Conclusions: Medical treatment enriched with physical exercises using feedback based on virtual reality did not affect static postural control but contributed to the improvement of dynamic postural control. The results of the study should be confirmed in high-quality therapeutic experiments, including control groups.