Effect of Mirror Therapy on Hand Functions in Leprosy Patients

Abstract

Background: Leprosy is a chronic infection which is caused by bacillus Mycobacterium leprae. It primarily affects superficial tissues, skin and peripheral nerves. Hand function disability and sensory loss following leprosy poses as one of the greatest obstacles to independent living. Aim: To study the effect of mirror therapy on hand functioning in leprosy patients. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the sensory re-education combined with mirror therapy in patients with leprosy. Methods: Thirty patients with leprosy were enrolled and divided into two groups Participants were divided in two groups, Experimental group and control group using convenient sampling. Subject in control group was treated with only sensory re-education, and subjects in experimental was treated with sensory re-education along with mirror therapy .The Sensory re-education program was for 30 min 4 days of week for 4weeks.Experimental group 30 minutes of mirror with sensory re-education for 4 days per week for 4 weeks . Fugl- Meyer (FM) Assessment Of Physical Performance. Michigan Hand Outcome Questionnaire (MHQ), and Disability of Arm Shoulder and Hand (DASH) scale were evaluated before treatment and 4weeks after the treatment. Results: Post treatment experimental group shows significant improvement in hand functioning with leprosy patients with P value 0.001 Conclusion: In our group of control and experimental of leprosy patients, hand functioning improved both groups, mirror therapy combined with sensory re-education showed more improvement than the only sensory re-education after 4 weeks of treatment.