• Wookyung Park, Jongwook Kim, and MinYoung Kim.
• Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University School of Medicine, Gyeonggi-do, Korea.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2021 Jul 16; 100 (28): e26657e26657.

RationaleWe report the possible therapeutic efficacy of immersive virtual reality (VR) rehabilitation for the treatment of ideomotor apraxia in a patient with stroke.Patient ConcernsA 56-year-old man with sudden weakness of his left side caused by right frontal, parietal, and corpus callosal infarction was transferred to rehabilitation medicine center for intensive rehabilitation. Although his left-sided weakness had almost subsided 10 days after the onset of symptoms, he presented difficulty using his left hand and required assistance in most activities of daily living.DiagnosesIdeomotor apraxia in a patient with right hemispheric infarction.InterventionsVR content was displayed to the study participants using a head-mounted display that involved catching of moving fish in the sea by grasping. Before and after of rehabilitative intervention including VR, functional measurements incorporating the Test of Upper Limb Apraxia (TULIA) were conducted. To directly compare therapeutic potencies under different conditions, success rates of consecutive grasping gesture performance were observed in VR, conventional occupational therapy setting, and augmented reality intervention.OutcomesThe patient demonstrated remarkable amelioration of apraxic symptoms while performing the task in the VR environment. At 1 and 3 months after the training, he showed significant improvement in most functions, and the TULIA score increased to 176 from 121 at the initiation of therapy. The number of successful grasps during 30 trials of each grasp trial was 28 in VR, 8 in the occupational therapy setting, and 20 in augmented reality.LessonsThis case report suggests the possible therapeutic efficacy of immersive VR training as a rehabilitative measure for ideomotor apraxia.Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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