The Effectiveness of Mirror Therapy to Upper Extremity Rehabilitation in Acute Stroke Patients

Author(s):  
Phassakorn Klinkwan ◽  
Chalunda Kongmaroeng ◽  
Sombat Muengtaweepongsa ◽  
Wiroj Limtrakarn

Rehabilitation is a crucial part of stroke recovery to help them regain use of their limb. The aim of this article was to compare the effectiveness of long-term training of mirror therapy with conventional rehabilitation therapy on neurological and recovery of upper limb in acute stroke patients. In this randomized and assessor-blinded control study, 20 acute stroke patients were analyzed in this study and allocated to a case (n = 10, 50.6 ± 17.90 years) and control group (n = 10, 55.9 ± 11.25 years). All the participants performed daily home exercise during 12 weeks. The patients in the control group were treated with conventional therapy (CT) and a group of cases were treated with mirror therapy (MT) alone program. The outcome measurements were assessed by a therapist blinded assessor using Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) upper extremity score, Brunnstrom recovery stages (BRS), Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and Muscle Strength to evaluate upper limb motor function and motor recovery. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests to compare within-groups and between-group differences. The results revealed that, after 12 weeks of treatment, patients of both groups presented statistically significant improvements in all the variables measured (p < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the patients of the MT group had greater improvement in the proximal movement portion of the FMA upper extremity mean score change (15.8 ± 3.2 versus 10.0 ± 2.7, p = 0.002) while there were no differences in other variables (p > 0.05). There were also no adverse events. It suggests that 12 weeks training of mirror therapy alone was likely to improve the motor recovery of the upper limb and activity of daily living in acute stroke patients than conventional therapy, if treated early.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jin-Yang Zhuang ◽  
Li Ding ◽  
Bei-Bei Shu ◽  
Dan Chen ◽  
Jie Jia

Bimanual cooperation plays a vital role in functions of the upper extremity and daily activities. Based on the principle of bilateral movement, mirror therapy could provide bimanual cooperation training. However, conventional mirror therapy could not achieve the isolation of the mirror. A novel paradigm mirror therapy called associated mirror therapy (AMT) was proposed to achieve bimanual cooperation task-based mirror visual feedback isolating from the mirror. The study was aimed at exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of AMT on stroke patients. We conducted a single-blind, randomized controlled trial. Thirty-six eligible patients were equally assigned into the experimental group (EG) receiving AMT and the control group (CG) receiving bimanual training without mirroring for five days/week, lasting four weeks. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment Upper Limb subscale (FMA-UL) for upper extremity motor impairment was used as the primary outcome. The secondary outcomes were the Box and Block Test (BBT) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) for motor and daily function. All patients participated in trials throughout without adverse events or side effects. The scores of FMA-UL and FIM improved significantly in both groups following the intervention. Compared to CG, the scores of FMA-UL and FIM were improved more significantly in EG after the intervention. The BBT scores were improved significantly for EG following the intervention, but no differences were found in the BBT scores of CG after the intervention. However, no differences in BBT scores were observed between the two groups. In summary, our study suggested that AMT was a feasible and practical approach to enhance the motor recovery of paretic arms and daily function in stroke patients. Furthermore, AMT may improve manual dexterity for poststroke rehabilitation.


Trials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkadesan Rajendran ◽  
Deepa Jeevanantham ◽  
Céline Larivière ◽  
Ravinder-Jeet Singh ◽  
Lisa Zeman ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Many therapeutic interventions are performed by physiotherapists to improve upper extremity function and/or activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke patients. Mirror therapy (MT) is a simple technique that can be self-administered by the patients with intact cognition following patient education by a skilled physiotherapist. However, the effectiveness of self-administered MT in post-stroke patients in upper extremity function remains unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of MT in improving upper extremity function and recovery in acute stroke patients. Methods This study is a single-center, prospective, randomized, open-label, controlled trial with blinded outcome evaluation (PROBE design), in which a total of 36 eligible acute stroke patients will be randomly assigned to control (n=18) and experimental group (n=18). Participants in the control group will receive regular rehabilitation interventions whereas participants in the experimental group will receive MT education in addition to their regular interventions for 4 weeks. Study outcome The primary outcome measure will be upper extremity function that will be measured using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale and the Wolf Motor Function Test. The secondary outcome measure will be behaviors related to ADL as estimated using the Modified Barthel Index. Outcome measures will be assessed at baseline and at 4 weeks post-rehabilitation intervention/MT. Results A two-way repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA) with time and group effects will be used to analyze between-group differences. The level of significance will be set at P < 0.05. Conclusion The results of the study will provide critical information to include self-administered MT as an adjuvant to regular interventions and may facilitate recovery of the upper extremity function of stroke patients. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04542772. Registered on 9 September 2020. Protocol version: Final 1.0.


Author(s):  
Cristina Russo ◽  
Laura Veronelli ◽  
Carlotta Casati ◽  
Alessia Monti ◽  
Laura Perucca ◽  
...  

AbstractMotor learning interacts with and shapes experience-dependent cerebral plasticity. In stroke patients with paresis of the upper limb, motor recovery was proposed to reflect a process of re-learning the lost/impaired skill, which interacts with rehabilitation. However, to what extent stroke patients with hemiparesis may retain the ability of learning with their affected limb remains an unsolved issue, that was addressed by this study. Nineteen patients, with a cerebrovascular lesion affecting the right or the left hemisphere, underwent an explicit motor learning task (finger tapping task, FTT), which was performed with the paretic hand. Eighteen age-matched healthy participants served as controls. Motor performance was assessed during the learning phase (i.e., online learning), as well as immediately at the end of practice, and after 90 min and 24 h (i.e., retention). Results show that overall, as compared to the control group, stroke patients, regardless of the side (left/right) of the hemispheric lesion, do not show a reliable practice-dependent improvement; consequently, no retention could be detected in the long-term (after 90 min and 24 h). The motor learning impairment was associated with subcortical damage, predominantly affecting the basal ganglia; conversely, it was not associated with age, time elapsed from stroke, severity of upper-limb motor and sensory deficits, and the general neurological condition. This evidence expands our understanding regarding the potential of post-stroke motor recovery through motor practice, suggesting a potential key role of basal ganglia, not only in implicit motor learning as previously pointed out, but also in explicit finger tapping motor tasks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 3519-3524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ipek Yeldan ◽  
Burcu Ersoz Huseyınsınoglu ◽  
Buket Akıncı ◽  
Ela Tarakcı ◽  
Sevim Baybas ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 474-481
Author(s):  
Jung-Ho Lee

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of modified mirror therapy and taping therapy for providing feedback on upper extremity function, activity, and daily activities of stroke patients. Methods: This study was conducted with 20 stroke patients and randomly assigned 10 subjects to the experimental group and 10 to the control group. In the experimental group, after proprioceptive neuromuscular stimulation treatment, the mirror therapy program was implemented. In the control group, upper extremity taping was performed before proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation treatment. In this study, a prior evaluation using JTT, FIM, and MAL was performed before intervention to evaluate the patient's function and daily life behavior. Post-tests were performed after the last treatment. Results: In the paired-sample T-test used for within-group comparison of JTTs, FIM, and MAL, there was a significant difference between pre- and post-test for all groups. But there was no statistically significant difference between experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 in an independent t-test conducted to compare the effect sizes of treatments. Conclusion: In other words, by applying mirror therapy and taping therapy that can increase proprioceptive sensation and feedback information in stroke patients, upper extremity function and daily activities can be increased.


Neuroreport ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 822-827
Author(s):  
Shoji Kinoshita ◽  
Hiroaki Tamashiro ◽  
Takatsugu Okamoto ◽  
Naoki Urushidani ◽  
Masahiro Abo

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laisram Nonica ◽  
Muzaffar Tufail ◽  
RK Wadhwa ◽  
Borah Diganta ◽  
SY Kothari

Abstract Trials have shown modest clinical improvement in disabilities after stroke with the use of different techniques; however most of the treatment protocols for the paretic upper extremity are either expensive or labour intensive, which makes the provision of intensive treatment for many patients difficult. It has been suggested that mirror therapy is a simple, inexpensive and, most importantly patient-directed treatment that may improve upper extremity function. A prospective randomised case control study was done on 60 patients of both the sexes in the age group of 19 to 82 years having stroke for the first time. This study was conducted in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of a tertiary care hospital. All the patients who fulfilled the criteria were enrolled for study; patients were randomly allotted to the study or control group. Study group was given mirror therapy in addition to the conventional stroke rehabilitation programme. Patients were assessed in terms of motor recovery (Brunnstrom stages), spasticity (modified Ashworth Scale), and the self-care items of the Barthel index. These indices were measured at 0 month (pretreatment), 1 month (post-treatment), and 6 months (follow-up). There was a statistically significant difference in spasticity improvement between the study and control groups; however no significant difference was seen in motor recovery and self care items between the groups. The patients had significant improvements within the groups after the therapy for one month. Mirror therapy can be a useful intervention supplement in rehabilitation of patients; it provides a simple and cost effective therapy for recovery of hand function.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 509-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Edwardson ◽  
Ximing Wang ◽  
Brent Liu ◽  
Li Ding ◽  
Christianne J. Lane ◽  
...  

Background. Stroke patients with mild-moderate upper extremity motor impairments and minimal sensory and cognitive deficits provide a useful model to study recovery and improve rehabilitation. Laboratory-based investigators use lesioning techniques for similar goals. Objective. To determine whether stroke lesions in an upper extremity rehabilitation trial cohort match lesions from the preclinical stroke recovery models used to drive translational research. Methods. Clinical neuroimages from 297 participants enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Comprehensive Arm Rehabilitation Evaluation (ICARE) study were reviewed. Images were characterized based on lesion type (ischemic or hemorrhagic), volume, vascular territory, depth (cortical gray matter, cortical white matter, subcortical), old strokes, and leukoaraiosis. Lesions were compared with those of preclinical stroke models commonly used to study upper limb recovery. Results. Among the ischemic stroke participants, median infarct volume was 1.8 mL, with most lesions confined to subcortical structures (61%) including the anterior choroidal artery territory (30%) and the pons (23%). Of ICARE participants, <1% had lesions resembling proximal middle cerebral artery or surface vessel occlusion models. Preclinical models of subcortical white matter injury best resembled the ICARE population (33%). Intracranial hemorrhage participants had small (median 12.5 mL) lesions that best matched the capsular hematoma preclinical model. Conclusions. ICARE subjects are not representative of all stroke patients, but they represent a clinically and scientifically important subgroup. Compared with lesions in general stroke populations and widely studied animal models of recovery, ICARE participants had smaller, more subcortically based strokes. Improved preclinical-clinical translational efforts may require better alignment of lesions between preclinical and human stroke recovery models.


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