Clinical Effects and Feasibility of Virtual Reality Table Tennis in People With Parkinson’s Disease in a Supervised Outpatient Setting: A Case Series

In Parkinson’s disease, conventional rehabilitation has long been a cornerstone of symptom management; however, in recent years, an increasing number of studies have reported the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR)-based rehabilitation. Although a variety of VR modalities have been explored, there have been no prior reports specifically investigating rehabilitation using table tennis-based VR software. We report a case series evaluating VR table tennis as rehabilitation in 4 patients with Parkinson’s disease (Hoehn-Yahr stages II-III). Participants completed 16 sessions of VR training. Motor and non-motor symptoms, quality of life (QOL), and usability were assessed using the MDS-UPDRS, PDQ-39, and System Usability Scale. Improvements exceeding the minimal clinically important difference were observed in motor function and QOL. All participants completed the program without encountering any adverse events. Our findings suggest that VR table tennis is a safe and feasible rehabilitation method for patients with Parkinson’s disease.