Health

Nintendo 'Wiihabilitation' Big Hit Among Patients

CHICAGO (AP) ― 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."

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