Effectiveness of Lower Extremity Mirror Therapy on Balance and Gait for Post Stroke Patients

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a disorder where brain is damaged either by blockage in the blood vessels or rupture of the blood vessels. It is one of the leading cause of death. Objectives: To find out the effectiveness of lower extremity mirror therapy on balance and gait for post stroke patients. Methodology: Experimental study design was used in this study. 20 patients with stroke were randomly assigned into two groups among them 10 patients were assigned into experimental group received Mirror Therapy with Conventional Physiotherapy and another 10 into control group received only conventional physiotherapy. Total treatment sessions were twenty-four comprising of 3 sessions per week for 4 weeks. Outcome measurement tools: Berg balance scale (BBS) has used to measure balance, 10 meter walk test and timed up and go (TUG) has used to measure mobility. Analysis of data: Inferential statistics such as paird t test, and unpaired t test was done for BBS, 10 meter walk test and time up and go by using SPSS version 22. Results: After observing pre-test and post-test score the significant improvement wasn‟t found. P-value was >0.05. Improvements were not statistically significant.But according to mean difference experimental group has little superior effect than control group. Conclusion: These results showed no statistical significant value but there was a mean difference, which indicate that mirror therapy with conventional physiotheapy can be an effective therapeutic approach for stroke patients with balance and gait problems. Key words: Mirror Therapy, Stroke, Conventional physiotherapy. Word count: 11,016