Abstract

Background: Stroke is a leading public health issue around the world. Stroke leads to a sequence of sensory-motor impairments inclusive of muscle weakness, altered selective motor control, spasticity, and proprioceptive deficits which retard normal gait. Mirror therapy is helpful in improving the gait in subacute stroke. Aims and Objectives: The objective of this study is to know the effect on the gait of chronic stroke patients by mirror therapy.
Materials and Methods: A total of 26 participants with more than 6 months duration of stroke with a mean age of 60.96 years participated and were allocated randomly into two groups by systematic randomization. Participants were taken from the Physiotherapy Department of the Shree Krishna Hospital, Karamsad and its extension centers. Group A received mirror therapy and conventional therapy while Group B received only conventional therapy. The outcome was measured in terms of spatiotemporal gait parameters such as step length (paretic and non-paretic), stride length (paretic and non-paretic), cadence, and velocity. Paired and unpaired t-test were done to find out the difference before and after the intervention.
Results: The results showed that there was improvement in both groups of gait parameters, but Group A showed statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in all gait parameters. Conclusion: Mirror therapy was helpful in improving the gait ability in chronic stroke patient compared to conventional therapy.