Immediate but transient improvement in dynamic balance during immersive virtual reality rehabilitation in Parkinson’s disease: a case report

Virtual reality (VR)-based rehabilitation is a promising approach to enhance dynamic balance in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the immediate effects and temporal characteristics remain unclear. A 60-year-old Japanese man with Hoehn and Yahr stage III Parkinson’s disease was treated in an outpatient rehabilitation program. He underwent either immersive VR or conventional seated balance exercises 23 times over 8 weeks as the first part of his outpatient rehabilitation program. Each session lasted approximately 10 min. Dynamic balance was assessed using the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test before and after each session. The mean improvement rate on the TUG test was 13.8% and 4.8% after the VR sessions and the control sessions, respectively, with a significant between-group difference (p = 0.018). Improvement rates during the VR sessions exhibited a progressive increase over time, whereas the baseline TUG values remained stable. These findings indicate that short, immersive VR interventions can produce immediate and consistent improvements in dynamic balance. However, the effect is transient, suggesting that the midterm improvements reported in previous studies may reflect accumulated short-term responses. This report highlights the need to interpret the efficacy of VR in terms of temporal dynamics.