EFFECT OF MIRROR THERAPY ON HEMIPARETIC UPPER EXTREMITY IN SUBACUTE STROKE PATIENTS

Background: Stroke is one of the most common causes for chronic disability. Only 5 to 20% of stroke survivors attain complete functional recovery of their affected upper extremity. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effect of mirror therapy on hemiparetic upper extremity motor recovery and functions in patients with subacute stroke. Methods: A total of 30 participants were selected for the study. They were randomly assigned to Mirror Therapy Group (MTG) and Sham Mirror Therapy Group (SMTG) with fifteen participants in each group. All the participants equally took part in conventional stroke rehabilitation program 5 days a week for 4 weeks. In addition to the conventional stroke rehabilitation program, MTG participated in 30 minutes of mirror therapy and SMTG received 30 minutes of sham mirror therapy for the affected hemiparetic upper limb. The participants were measured for upper extremity motor recovery and functions by FuglMeyer Assessment (FMA-UE) and Upper Extremity Functional Index (UEFI) scales respectively. Results: Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Mann Whitney U test were used to statistically analyze the data. Spearman correlational technique was used to analyze the relationship between upper limb functions and motor recovery of hand. Based on Wilcoxon signed ranks test, the results were highly significant (p<0.05). On the basis of Mann Whitney U test, Mirror therapy group showed high significance ( p<0.05) than sham mirror therapy group. The Spearman's rho value was 0.65 which indicated moderate to maximum positive correlation between the two variables and the alpha level was set at 0.01. Conclusion: This study concludes that incorporating mirror therapy in subacute stroke rehabilitation program improves the hemiparetic upper extremity motor recovery and its functions and also motor recovery of hand can directly influence the upper limb functions.