At the University Hospital of Montpellier (Hérault), no effort is spared to reduce the anxiety of children before an intervention. Small electric cars take them to the operating room, and for MRIs, they climb into a fake scanner, looking like a rocket. Before the summer, the establishment acquired a new tool to reassure the youngest: a few days before the operation, children aged 7 to 16 now have the possibility of immersing themselves, thanks to a virtual reality headset, in their journey to the operating room. A virtual trip made within the establishment, in a small specially equipped room. It is Sanofi’s innovation laboratory in Montpellier, 34 Bis, and the virtual reality experts from Capgemini, who have developed this solution.
“The big problem, in pediatrics, for children who go to the operating room, is anxiety, says doctor Chrystelle Sola, anesthetist and resuscitator at the CHU. For them, the most dramatic is all the breaks that there will be in their hospital journey. The break in time, because the day will not be the same as the day before, we are not at school, and we feel that mom and dad are a little anxious. The geographical break, because we are in a place that we do not know. And the break with those around you, because at some point you will have to separate from your family. »
“This anxiety, we must not neglect it”
At the Montpellier University Hospital, of course, there is a team of pediatric nurses experienced in caring for young patients, who know how to put them at ease and desecrate the operation. And there was, too, an old video, filmed on the shoulder with the means at hand, to show the operating room. But frankly not very fun. By putting on the virtual reality helmet, the child is thus immersed in a small 3D cartoon, which takes him through the corridors of the CHU, with the staff, and goes to the operating room, “in an extremely realistic way, notes Chrystel Sola. Thus, the child knows what is going to happen. »
Because the anxiety of patients, and in particular of children, before surgery, is not insignificant. Too stressed, the youngest can tolerate the operation less well, or “spend more time in the hospital, or even develop behavioral problems at home, such as separation anxiety”, explains Chrystelle Sola. “This anxiety, we must not neglect it. »
The first children, who were able to test the device at the CHU, are “very delighted”. “They want more,” smiles the doctor, who reports some reactions from little patients once the helmet has been removed: “I thought it was great! “, ” It was too short ! », « It relieved me of the stress! “. The device tested at the Montpellier hospital will be studied, and should soon be the subject of a scientific publication, in order to assess the impact of virtual reality on children before operations. And about his parents.