Virtual reality hypnosis diminishes experimental cold pain and alters autonomic responses.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool to reduce pain in clinical setting. Digital scripts displayed by VR disposals can be enriched by several analgesic interventions, which are widely used to reduce pain. One of these techniques is hypnosis induced through the VR script (VRH) which is facilitated by immersive environment and particularly efficient even for low hypnotizable patients.

Effect of Virtual Reality Hypnosis on Pain Threshold and Neurophysiological and Autonomic Biomarkers in Healthy Volunteers: Prospective Randomized Crossover Study.

Background: Virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) is a promising tool to reduce pain. However, the benefits of VRH on pain perception and on the physiological expression of pain require further investigation.

Objective: In this study, we characterized the effects of VRH on the heat pain threshold among adult healthy volunteers while monitoring several physiological and autonomic functions.

An active cardiac stabilizer based on gyroscopic effect.

Active cardiac stabilization has a role to play in the development of minimally invasive techniques for beating heart surgery. We propose here a new active cardiac stabilization device based on gyroscopic actuation. This system allows to compensate for heart motion in high frequencies and is fully independant and pluggable on conventional stabilizers.

Motion prediction for computer-assisted beating heart surgery.

Off-pump totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting is a milestone for cardiac surgery, and still a technical challenge. Indeed, the fast and complex cardiac motion makes this operating method technically demanding. Therefore, several robotic systems have been designed to assist the surgeons by compensating for the cardiac motion and providing a virtually motionless operating area.

Cardiolock: an active cardiac stabilizer. First in vivo experiments using a new robotized device.

Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) is still a technically difficult procedure. The mechanical stabilizers used for local suppression of the heart excursion have been demonstrated to exhibit significant residual motion, which could lead to a lack of accuracy in performing the surgical task, particularly when using a minimally invasive surgery (MIS) approach. We therefore propose a novel active stabilizer to compensate for the residual motion whose architecture is compatible with MIS.

Cardiolock: an active cardiac stabilizer. First in vivo experiments using a new robotized device.

Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) is still today a technically difficult procedure. In fact, the mechanical stabilizers used to locally suppress the heart excursion have been demonstrated to exhibit significant residual motion. We therefore propose a novel active stabilizer which is able to compensate for this residual motion.