Mirror therapy for orthopaedic injuries

Mirrors have also been used to promote recovery of hand function after hand surgery in a controlled clinical trial on 30 patients.

Effect of mirror therapy on hand function in patients with hand orthopaedic injuries: a randomized controlled trial

Visual Feedback Combined With Proprioceptive Feedback Helps Relieve Phantom Pain

Max Ortiz-Catalan and colleagues recently reported a case study in which they used virtual reality to decrease phantom limb pain. Treatment led to complete pain-free periods, the ability to freely move their phantom limb, and a telescoping effect in which the position of the phantom hand was restored to the anatomically correct distance. This treatment could be helpful for bilateral amputees in which mirror therapy is not an option as mirror therapy requires one intact limb.

Treatment of phantom limb pain (PLP) based on augmented reality and gaming controlled by myoelectric pattern recognition: a case study of a chronic PLP patient

Mirror Visual Feedback for Back Pain

Back pain is extremely common and can seriously compromise a person's life style. Lorimer Moseley and his collaborators have now demonstrated successful use of mirror therapy for treating this disorder; in an ingenious placebo controlled study, the mirror group showed, on average, about 10% greater reduction in pain than the control group.

Seeing It Helps: Movement-related Back Pain is Reduced by Visualization of the Back During Movement