Effects of joint integrity exercises versus mirror therapy on proprioception and functional rehabilitation of upper limb in hemineglect stroke survivors

Objective: To compare the effects of joint integrity exercises and mirror therapy to see which intervention was more successful in enhancing proprioception and motor function of the upper limb in hemineglect stroke survivors. Methodology: This was randomized clinical trial study. This study was registered on clinical trial.gov with the registration number NCT03827135. Non-probability convenient sampling technique was used to collect the data. Following the line bisection test, patients who had suffered from hemineglect strokes were divided into two groups, Group A and Group B depending on the treatment method used. Sessions were held 3 days a week. Data was gathered from two groups using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Revised Nottingham Sensory Assessment, and Motor Assessment Scale at baseline=0 week, at 3 weeks, and after 6 weeks. Version 21 of SPSS for Windows was used to analyze the data. Results: The mean age and standard deviation of patients was 53.86±3.48 for joint integrity exercises group with 28.57% male and 71.43% female population while 52.36±4.81 for mirror therapy group with 42.86% male and 57.14% female population. Post treatment P-value of sensation component of FMA.U.E, motor component of wrist joint and RNSA is less than 0.05, showed that joint integrity exercises were more effective on sensory component of U.E and motor component of wrist joint while graphical representation of MAS score showed mirror therapy more effective on motor component of upper extremity. Results of spearmen’s rho showed that proprioception and functional rehabilitation were positively correlated with each other. In clinical settings, use of both interventions i.e joint integrity exercises and mirror therapy are effective to recover sensory and motor functions of U.E respectively. Conclusion: Joint integrity exercises were more effective on sensory component of upper extremity and proprioception positively correlated with function rehabilitation of upper limb.