Hemiparesis Upper Limb Case Study Examples

The following article evaluates the potential benefits of viewing a mirror image of an unaffected upper limb on recovery in patients with hemiparesis early after ischemic stroke. Participants included thirty-six individuals who had severe hemiparesis following a first-time ischemic stroke in the middle cerebral artery territory. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups; the control group (n=18), who received standard therapy, or the experimental group (n=18), who received standard therapy and mirror therapy (MT). As mentioned, all participants received standard therapy, which required the execution of arm, hand, and finger postures in response to verbal instructions, over the course of six weeks, with therapy occurring five days a week for thirty minutes. Patients in the MT condition watched the mirror image of the unaffected arm as if it were the affected one, whereas patients in the control condition had direct view of the affected arm. The primary outcomes of the intervention were improvements on the seven, upper limb subscores of the Fugl-Meyer test (e.g., proximal arm, hand, and finger function, surface sensibility, proprioception, …show more content…
Specifically, it appears that MT patients demonstrate greater improvement on Fugl-Meyer non-motor subscales (surface sensibility, proprioception, joint pain during passive movement, range of motion) and the Action Research Arm Test. Overall these results support the researcher’s hypothesis that MT would be an effective treatment to support recovery from hemiparesis post ischemic stroke. However, researchers did not specifically hypothesize what symptoms of hemiparesis would be improved upon by MT, thus the remainder of the results are exploratory and provide further insight on how MT aids in recovery for these