Yosuke Wada, RPT, MS, Izumi Kondo, MD, PhD, Shigeru Sonoda, MD, PhD, Kayoko
Yamada, RPT, Akihisa Narukawa, RPT, Kenji Kawakami, RPT, MS, Sayaka Nonoyama, RPT,
Hiroyuki Miyasaka, OTR, MA, Toshio Teranishi, RPT, PhD, Shota Nagai, RPT, PhD, Nobuo
Takeshima, PhD
Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2: 71-76, 2011
Objective: This study investigated the improvement
in dorsiflexion of severely affected ankle joints of
first-stroke patients after mirror therapy.
Methods: Nine first-stroke patients participated in this
study. A mirror was placed to reflect the non-paralyzed
lower limb. A set of 50 dorsiflexion movements of the
ankle joint was performed 4 times a day for 7 days.
Foot functions of the Stroke Impairment Assessment
Set (SIAS-F) and the foot-floor angle at active
dorsiflexion were measured every 7 days starting from
14 days before initiation of the mirror therapy training
to 7 days after, for a total of 5 times.
Results: SIAS-F did not differ among the cases before
mirror therapy training. After the mirror therapy
training, 5 of the 9 patients showed SIAS-F improvement.
Significant differences were found between the scores
at the beginning and at the end of the mirror therapy
training, and between the scores at the beginning and
7 days after training. The mean foot-floor angle
changed from 0 degrees at the beginning of training to
3.0 degrees at the end of training and 1.2 degrees 7
days after the training; however, these values did not
differ significantly.
Conclusion: Significant improvement in dorsiflexion
of the ankle joint, as measured by SIAS-F, was
achieved with mirror therapy.
Key words: ankle dorsiflexion, hemiplegic, mirror therapy, stroke