Lower Extremity Rehabilitation in Patients with Post-Stroke Sequelae through Virtual Reality Associated with Mirror Therapy

Roxana Steliana Miclaus, Nadinne Roman, Ramona Henter and Silviu Caloian
Additional contact information
Roxana Steliana Miclaus: Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania
Nadinne Roman: Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania
Ramona Henter: Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Transilvania University of Brașov, Str. N. Bălcescu 56, 500368 Brașov, Romania
Silviu Caloian: Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University of Brașov, 500036 Brașov, Romania

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: More innovative technologies are used worldwide in patient’s rehabilitation after stroke, as it represents a significant cause of disability. The majority of the studies use a single type of therapy in therapeutic protocols. We aimed to identify if the association of virtual reality (VR) therapy and mirror therapy (MT) exercises have better outcomes in lower extremity rehabilitation in post-stroke patients compared to standard physiotherapy. Fifty-nine inpatients from 76 initially identified were included in the research. One experimental group ( n = 31) received VR therapy and MT, while the control group ( n = 28) received standard physiotherapy. Each group performed seventy minutes of therapy per day for ten days. Statistical analysis was performed with nonparametric tests. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test showed that both groups registered significant differences between pre-and post-therapy clinical status for the range of motion and muscle strength ( p < 0.001 and Cohen’s d between 0.324 and 0.645). Motor Fugl Meyer Lower Extremity Assessment also suggested significant differences pre-and post-therapy for both groups ( p < 0.05 and Cohen’s d 0.254 for the control group and 0.685 for the experimental group). Mann-Whitney results suggested that VR and MT as a therapeutic intervention have better outcomes than standard physiotherapy in range of motion ( p < 0.05, Cohen’s d 0.693), muscle strength ( p < 0.05, Cohen’s d 0.924), lower extremity functionality ( p < 0.05, Cohen’s d 0.984) and postural balance ( p < 0.05, Cohen’s d 0.936). Our research suggests that VR therapy associated with MT may successfully substitute classic physiotherapy in lower extremity rehabilitation after stroke.

Keywords: rehabilitation; post-stroke; virtual reality; mirror therapy; lower extremity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2654/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2654/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:5:p:2654-:d:511772

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().