Effects of Mirror Therapy to Improve Manual Dexterity in Paretic Hand after Stroke: A Quasi-experimental Study

Abstract

Introduction: In lower-income and lower-middle-income nations, about a 70% increase in incident strokes has been observed, followed by 43% deaths from stroke. The study aims to determine the effects of mirror therapy on manual dexterity in Stroke patients.

Methods: Quasi-experimental pre-post-test design was used in this study. The 10 participants with stroke with Brunnstrom stages 3 and 4 were assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. The current study investigated the effectiveness of using mirror therapy along with therapeutic exercises for improving the upper extremity motor performance in stroke patients.

Results: Intervention in which therapeutic exercises are incorporated along with mirror therapy proves to be an effective intervention strategy that can be used for improving the motor performance of the affected extremity in stroke patients p-value of 0.033 and 0.009 indicated that there is a significant difference between experimental and control group BBT and FMA scores respectively. Intervention in which therapeutic exercises were incorporated along with mirror therapy proved to be an effective intervention strategy that can be used for improving the motor performance of the affected extremity in stroke patients.

Conclusion: Both the intervention protocols are cost-effective, feasible and self-administered, thereby reducing the prolonged hospital stay for the patients and could be easily followed up at home for generalization. This study provides unique insight
into the upper extremity capacity and performance during occupational therapy practice.