Evaluation of Virtual Reality to Reduce Anxiety, Pain and Duration of Non-emergency Vigile Bronchial Fibroscopy (AVATAR)

Bronchial fibroscopy (BF) is an invasive examination mainly performed in vigilant patients under local anesthesia very regularly performed in patients hospitalized in critical care. Despite local anesthesia, and paradoxically also because of local anesthesia that makes the airflow in the upper airway imperceptible, BF is an anxiety-provoking and sometimes uncomfortable examination. Drug options are offered by physicians on a case-by-case basis and in response to patients' discomfort or anxiety. We believe that a preventive, non-drug strategy would improve comfort, reduce anxiety and improve patients' experience during BF. To reduce anxiety and improve patient comfort, there are non-drug alternatives such as hypnosis, music therapy or virtual reality. Hypnosis requires the availability of previously trained caregivers and a calm environment. Music therapy is difficult to apply in IS because of pre-existing noise pollution. We hypothesize that virtual reality would reduce patient anxiety during a bronchial fibroscopy in bed in critical care, improve the patient and caregiver experience and optimize its realization. Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows the patient to be projected, via a computer system, into an immersive virtual world. The patient's immersion in the virtual environment is accompanied by the feeling of "presence" which can be defined as the authentic feeling of existing in a world other than the one where the body is physically located.This specificity, coupled with the ability to isolate the patient's visual and auditory field, make this tool a promising solution to improve the well-being of patients during the care offer. VR is distributed by a set of devices to digitally simulate an environment mobilizing the different senses of its user: sight most often but possibly also touch, hearing or smell. VR, most often distributed via video and audio headset, is a complete immersive experience that can bring together hypnotic scenario and music therapy.

HEALTHY MIND® has designed a VR headset to relieve pain and anxiety in patients in healthcare facilities in a non-drug way. Indeed, this helmet has been developed to exercise analgesic and anxiolytic actions through specific virtual environments by combining different principles such as medical hypnosis, music therapy, light therapy and cardiac coherence. The proposed immersion themes combined with breathing exercises in the initial phase, generate better stress management.