Mirror therapy in hemiplegic patient

• Published in: Revista de neurologiá Vol. 62; no. 1; pp. 28 - 36
• Main Authors: Lisalde-Rodríguez, María Elena, Garcia-Fernández, José Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Hemiplegia - rehabilitation; Humans; Physical Therapy Modalities - instrumentation
• ISSN: 1576-6578
• DOI: 10.33588/rn.6201.2015285

Mirror therapy is a relatively new intervention, every time more used and with easy access for the rehabilitation treatment of stroke patient. The patient moves the unaffected limb in front of a mirror watching the reflection of that move as if he was moving de affected limb. To analyze the effectiveness of mirror therapy in the sensorimotor function, hemineglect and activities of daily living of stroke patients. We defined a strategy of bibliography search in Medline, EMBASE, PEDro y Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) looking for randomised controlled trials (RCT) conducted with hemiplegic patients considering mirror therapy as the main rehabilitation intervention. Seven trials met the inclusion criteria with medium-high methodological quality. Most of them evaluate the mirror therapy effect on motor outcomes showing significant improvements. Three of this RCTs evaluate the effect of mirror therapy on the hemineglect with positive result. A combination of mirror therapy with conventional rehabilitation obtained significant improvements mainly in motor function but not that much on sensory function and functional performance. About the effect of mirror therapy on hemineglect, there are significant improvements but supported only with a few RCTs with small sample sizes producing promising but inconclusive results.