The efficacy of mirror therapy combined with conventional stroke rehabilitation program on motor and functional recovery

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: A variety of methods is used in the treatment of upper extremity functional impairment after stroke.In recent years, a new therapeutic approach in the treatment of stroke rehabilitation is the mirror therapy.The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of mirror therapy,which is applied through motor imagination training, combined with conventional stroke rehabilitation program on upper extremity motor and functional recovery in patients with subacute stroke. MATERIAL and METHODS: This is a randomized,prospective,controlled single-blind trial.The study included 20 patients who were diagnosed with stroke.Patients were randomly divided into two groups:first group received conventional rehabilitation program and the second group received conventional rehabilitation program plus mirror therapy on nonparetic upper extremity consisting of wrist extension daily 4 times for 15minutes per session. Both groups received the conventional rehabilitation program for 4 weeks, 5 days a week and daily 1-2h. All patients were evaluated at baseline and at the end of the treatment(week 4).The evaluations were performed by using Brunnstrom Staging, Fugl Meyer Motor Function Scale(FM),Barthel Index(BI) and goniometric measurement of wrist extension. RESULTS: The Brunnstrom stage(p<0.01), total score on FM and BI scores (p<0.01) were improved at week 4 compared to the baseline, whereas wrist subscore on FM and the goniometric measurements of the wrist and wrist extension were significantly improved only in group II.The two treatment groups were not statistically different in terms of posttreatment evaluation parameters. CONCLUSION: In our study,the mirror therapy combined with conventional rehabilitation program was not superior to conventional rehabilitation program alone in terms of upper extremity motor and functional recovery.