A World of Pain

Bauer broke several bones in the fall. In addition to breaking his wrist and pelvis, he broke his heels in more than 16 places. These breaks would require ten different surgeries followed by months of painful recovery.

Until recently, pain management has relied on medication and not much else. The problem with this is that some pain medicines can have severe side effects and can even cause addiction. Now, researchers are working to develop more effective and less harmful methods to reduce pain.

Repairing Bauer’s broken pelvis was a particular challenge. Fifteen-centimeter pins were put into his bones. Eight weeks later, the pins had to be removed. This is technically simple—a doctor just removes 

the pins from the bones. However, it’s an incredibly painful process since the pins are deep inside the body.

Normally, the process happens in an operating room while the patient is under anesthesia. For his procedure, though, Bauer was given two options: he could have a breathing tube put into his throat and receive anesthesia again, or he could be part of a research study. That study would involve using virtual reality (VR) in place of pain medication. The VR program that Bauer’s doctor suggested was developed by Hunter Hoffman, a research scientist at the University of Washington. He initially developed the program to help burn patients, who experience extreme pain during their wound care. Bauer jumped at the opportunity to avoid another breathing tube.

Before the removal of the first pin, a VR headset was placed on Bauer’s head. Suddenly, he was surrounded by virtual penguins and snowmen that he was supposed to hit with snowballs, using a computer mouse. As the first pin was removed, Bauer said, the VR experience probably cut his pain in half. “I was concentrating almost entirely on throwing snowballs at the snowmen and penguins, so it was a very pleasant distraction, and the pain was a lot less,” he explained. As required by the study, Bauer did not use the headset for the removal of the second pin. This time, the pain was much more severe. Surprisingly, the VR game helped Bauer even when he wasn’t playing it. Bauer described the experience, saying, “That got pretty intense, and so then I started actually trying to make myself think about throwing snowballs and being in the game, and that reduced the discomfort.”

Researchers aren’t sure why the VR works. Some think it works through distraction—by involving parts of the brain that would otherwise be involved in feeling pain. Others think that it might work by controlling emotions and mood. Or it may be that the entertainment provided by the experience helps relax patients and reduces their anxiety.

Reducing pain with technology seems to be fairly effective. But what if you could not feel it to begin with? It sounds impossible, but a very small percentage of people cannot feel any pain at all. To people like Bauer, this idea might sound amazing. However, pain serves an important purpose. Without it, you wouldn’t know that you were burning your hand on a hot stove or cutting yourself on broken glass. Although it causes suffering, pain helps us avoid injuries.

1. After an accident where he fell off a roof, Brent Bauer broke many bones, including his wrist, pelvis, and his heels. He needed a significant number of and many months of recovery.