Date:
02/08/2008 02:53 PM Doctors use Wii games for rehab therapy after strokes,
surgery, even combat injuries
By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO (AP) _ Some call it "Wiihabilitation."
Nintendo's Wii video game system, whose popularity
already extends beyond the teen gaming set, is fast becoming
a craze in rehab therapy for patients recovering from strokes,
broken bones, surgery and even combat injuries.
The usual stretching and lifting exercises
that help the sick or injured regain strength can be painful,
repetitive and downright boring.
In fact, many patients say PT — physical
therapy's nickname — really stands for "pain and
torture," said James Osborn, who oversees rehabilitation
services at Herrin Hospital in southern Illinois.
Using the game console's unique, motion-sensitive
controller, Wii games require body movements similar to traditional
therapy exercises. But patients become so engrossed mentally
they're almost oblivious to the rigor, Osborn said.
"In the Wii system, because it's kind
of a game format, it does create this kind of inner competitiveness.
Even though you may be boxing or playing tennis against some
figure on the screen, it's amazing how many of our patients
want to beat their opponent," said Osborn of Southern
Illinois Healthcare, which includes the hospital in Herrin.
The hospital, about 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, bought
a Wii system for rehab patients late last year.
"When people can refocus their attention
from the tediousness of the physical task, oftentimes they
do much better," Osborn said.
Nintendo Co. doesn't market Wii's potential
use in physical therapy, but company representative Anka Dolecki
said, "We are happy to see that people are finding added
benefit in rehabilitation."
The most popular Wii games in rehab involve
sports — baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and tennis.
Using the same arm swings required by those sports, players
wave a wireless controller that directs the actions of animated
athletes on the screen.
The Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital west of
Chicago recently bought a Wii system for its spinal cord injury
unit.
Pfc. Matthew Turpen, 22, paralyzed from the
chest down in a car accident last year while stationed in
Germany, plays Wii golf and bowling from his wheelchair at
Hines. The Des Moines, Iowa, native says the games help beat
the monotony of rehab and seem to be doing his body good,
too.
"A lot of guys don't have full finger
function so it definitely helps being able to work on using
your fingers more and figuring out different ways to use your
hands" and arms, Turpen said.
At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the therapy
is well-suited to patients injured during combat in Iraq,
who tend to be in the 19 to 25 age range — a group that's
"very into" playing video games, said Lt. Col. Stephanie
Daugherty, Walter Reed's chief of occupational therapy.
"They think it's for entertainment, but
we know it's for therapy," she said.
It's useful in occupational therapy, which
helps patients relearn daily living skills including brushing
teeth, combing hair and fastening clothes, Daugherty said.
WakeMed Health has been using Wii games at
its Raleigh, N.C., hospital for patients as young as 9 "all
the way up to people in their 80s," said therapist Elizabeth
Penny.
"They're getting improved endurance,
strength, coordination. I think it's very entertaining for
them," Penny said.
"It really helps the body to loosen up
so it can do what it's supposed to do," said Billy Perry,
64, a retired Raleigh police officer. He received Wii therapy
at WakeMed after suffering a stroke on Christmas Eve.
Perry said he'd seen his grandchildren play
Wii games and was excited when a hospital therapist suggested
he try it.
He said Wii tennis and boxing helped him regain
strength and feeling in his left arm.
"It's enjoyable. I know I'm going to
participate with my grandkids more when I go visit them,"
Perry said.
While there's plenty of anecdotal evidence
that Wii games help in rehab, researcher Lars Oddsson wants
to put the games to a real test.
Oddsson is director of the Sister Kenny Research
Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. The
center bought a Wii system last summer and is working with
the University of Minnesota to design a study that will measure
patients' function "before and after this 'Wiihab,' as
someone called it," Oddsson said.
"You can certainly make a case that some
form of endurance related to strength and flexibility and
balance and cardio would be challenged when you play the Wii,"
but hard scientific proof is needed to prove it, Oddsson said.
Meantime, Dr. Julio Bonis of Madrid says he
has proof that playing Wii games can have physical effects
of another kind.
Bonis calls it acute "Wiiitis" —
a condition he says he developed last year after spending
several hours playing the Wii tennis game.
Bonis described his ailment in a letter to
the New England Journal of Medicine — intense pain in
his right shoulder that a colleague diagnosed as acute tendonitis,
a not uncommon affliction among players of real-life tennis.
Bonis said he recovered after a week of ibuprofen
and no Wii, and urged doctors to be aware of Wii overuse.
Still, as a Wii fan, he said in an e-mail
that he could imagine more moderate use would be helpful in
physical therapy "because of the motivation that the
game can provide to the patient."
