Treating a severe burn can be more painful than the injury itself, experts say. But video games may help children get through the experience.

One 14-year-old patient at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbbus, Ohio, with a burned foot said that if the pain was at the top of a 1 to 10 scale at first, playing a game dropped it to a 5 or 6.

Patients wear a virtual-reality helmet and play a game that involves throwing snowballs at penguins.

"What we know about anxiety is that it definitely heightens pain, so when we can keep that at a minimum, procedures tend to go much more smoothly and be much less painful for the child," said psychologist Catherine Butz.

Nurses often use different techniques to distract kids from their pain. Some kids watch TV or listen to music. Others play with toys or color. Experts think in some cases, the virtual reality games might be more effective because they engage more of a patient's senses and require greater concentration.

Butz is leading a study to see just how much these games help and who may benefit from them.

"We're also assessing the perspective from the parent and the nurse in terms of the child's level of stress; not only to see if those two sources match, but also to get an outside perspective of how they thought that child did," said Butz.