Physiotherapists at a hospital in Leeds, UK, are using Wii Fit to aid patients recovering from amputation surgery.

Staff at Seacroft Hospital say that Wii Fit’s bundled balance board can help teach a recovering patient how to use their new prosthetic limbs, as the device can accurately measure weight distribution.

Patients who have undergone leg amputation surgery will often struggle in adjusting their weight to their new prosthetic limb, but senior physiotherapist Lynn Hirst tells nintendoworldreport that the Wii Fit balance board – which can track and display a user’s centre of gravity – has become a very valuable aid in helping patients see "where they are taking their weight."

Hirst also praises the balance board for allowing patients to do things like “ski down a mountain or head a football during sessions using the machine”, as opposed to the traditional process of physiotherapeutic recovery whereby a trainer takes patients through a more sombre and strenuous rehabilitation process.

Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that playing Tetris may help reduce the effect of post-traumatic stress. An experiment undertaken at Oxford University is working on a theory that there are ways to modify the manner in which the brain creates memories after a traumatic event – with playing Tetris being a prime example.

In an attempt to validate the supposition, researchers at Oxford showed a film of “traumatic images” to 40 test subjects, half of which had to play a few games of Tetris after the screening.

Oxford claims that those who played Tetris experienced far less flashbacks the following days than the control group.

And while the research initiative has received convincing criticisms from many angles for supposing it can ‘simulate’ distress using mere film footage, Oxford’s Dr Emily Homes believes that playing a game of Tetris after a moment of trauma may reduce flashbacks because it is “competing for the brain's resources for sensory information.”

By that rational, Wario Ware would probably be a better game to use. Unless of course you have a better suggestion, which you can make below in the comments section.