Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Perioperative virtual reality and neuropsychiatric outcomes: a scoping review
Authors' conclusion
VR shows promise in reducing perioperative anxiety, with potential implications for delirium prevention.
Study context
- Population
- Adult surgical patients
- Participants
- 2,227 patients · 23 studies
- Comparison
- Virtual reality (VR) interventions in the perioperative period
- Outcome
- Perioperative anxiety, pain and delirium
Methodological detailsEmbase and PubMed searched, 2020 to 2025, Predominantly RCTs from various countries
- Embase and PubMed searched, 2020 to 2025
- Predominantly RCTs from various countries
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- No study directly evaluated VR's effect on delirium
- Several studies showed VR's potential in reducing perioperative anxiety and pain, with mixed efficacy
- VR interventions varied in content, technological sophistication, frequency and duration
Further findings
Quality assessment
- Limitations due to unblinded designs
Original publication
Perioperative virtual reality and neuropsychiatric outcomes: a scoping review. Perioper Med (Lond). Published 25 March 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →