Effectiveness of Mirror Therapy in Stroke Patients With Unilateral Neglect - A Randomized Controlled Trial
Effectiveness of Mirror Therapy in Stroke Patients With Unilateral Neglect - A Randomized Controlled Trial
Hemi spatial neglect, or the tendency to ignore stimuli originating in a portion of the
 environment contra lateral to a cerebral lesion, can be a major source of functional handicap
 after stroke. The currently available treatments for unilateral neglect are scanning
 training, visual cuing approaches, limb activation strategies, visual imagery, tactile
 stimulation, prisms and sustained attention training.Mirror therapy improves the hand
 function in sub-acute stroke.

 Hypothesis: To evaluate the effectiveness of Mirror therapy in the management of stroke
 patients with unilateral neglect.
About 30 - 50% of stroke patients are left with considerable residual deficits. The post
 stroke disabilities are due to loss of locomotion and activities of daily living, cognition
 and communication skills.Hemispatial neglect has been reported in association with damage to
 several different cerebral structures in a large-scale distributed neurocognitive
 network.Mirror therapy improves the hand function in sub-acute stroke. It also helps in the
 recovery of neglect in stroke patients. But little consensus exists as to whether one
 treatment is more efficacious than others and many studies fail to document duration of
 treatment effects or generalization to daily activities. The aim of our study is to evaluate
 the effectiveness of limb activation with MT and limb activation strategy alone in the
 management of stroke patients with unilateral neglect and to make the patient functional in
 activities of daily living.
Inclusion Criteria: 1.All stroke patients with parietal lobe and thalamic lesions 2. Stroke
 duration: within 48 hours 3. Patients willing to participate in the study 4. MRI/ CT scan
 showing parietal lobe and thalamic lesion 5. Patients with upper limb weakness

 Exclusion Criteria:

 1. Stroke duration more than 1 yr

 2. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of less than 7

 3. Uncooperative patients