Mirror therapy for severely affected ankle joints of stroke patients

Wada Y, Kondo I, Sonoda S, Yamada K, Narukawa A, Kawakami K, Nonoyama S, Miyasaka H, Teranishi T, Nagai S, Takeshima N: Mirror therapy for severely affected ankle joints of stroke patients. Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2011; 2: 71-76.Objective: This study investigated the improvement in dorsiflexion of severely affected ankle joints of first-stroke patients after mirror therapy.Methods: Nine first-stroke patients participated in this study. A mirror was placed to reflect the non-paralyzed lower limb. A set of 50 dorsiflexion movements of the ankle joint was performed 4 times a day for 7 days. Foot functions of the Stroke Impairment Assessment Set (SIAS-F) and the foot-floor angle at active dorsiflexion were measured every 7 days starting from 14 days before initiation of the mirror therapy training to 7 days after, for a total of 5 times.Results: SIAS-F did not differ among the cases before mirror therapy training. After the mirror therapy training, 5 of the 9 patients showed SIAS-F improvement. Significant differences were found between the scores at the beginning and at the end of the mirror therapy training, and between the scores at the beginning and 7 days after training. The mean foot-floor angle changed from 0 degrees at the beginning of training to 3.0 degrees at the end of training and 1.2 degrees 7 days after the training; however, these values did not differ significantly.Conclusion: Significant improvement in dorsiflexion of the ankle joint, as measured by SIAS-F, was achieved with mirror therapy.