Effect of AI-Personalized Virtual Reality on Postoperative Recovery After Major Abdominal Surgery

Brief Summary

Major abdominal surgery is frequently associated with postoperative pain, anxiety, delayed recovery, and prolonged hospitalization. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an AI-personalized virtual reality (VR) intervention as an adjunct to routine postoperative care in improving recovery outcomes among patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. Participants assigned to the intervention group receive immersive VR sessions delivered through a smartphone-based head-mounted display integrated with an AI-assisted personalization system. The system combines patient-reported pain and anxiety levels, postoperative recovery status, emotional state estimates obtained through facial emotion recognition technology, and previous session feedback to personalize VR content and enhance patient engagement. VR sessions are initiated on the first postoperative day and administered twice daily until hospital discharge. The primary outcome is postoperative quality of recovery measured using the Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15) questionnaire. Secondary outcomes include pain intensity, anxiety, recovery milestones, opioid requirements, simulator sickness, and length of hospital stay. The study compares AI-personalized VR plus routine postoperative care with routine postoperative care alone. Findings from this trial will help determine whether AI-enhanced VR is a feasible, safe, and effective strategy for improving postoperative recovery and reducing hospital stay following major abdominal surgery.