Effect of Motor Imagery in the Rehabilitation of Burn Patients

Abstract

Although there is ample evidence that motor imagery (MI) improves motor performance after CNS injury, it is still unknown whether MI may enhance motor recovery after peripheral injury and most especially in the rehabilitation of burn patients. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a 2-week MI training program combined with conventional rehabilitation on the recovery of motor functions in handed burn patients. Fourteen patients admitted to the Medical Burn Center were requested to take part in the study and were randomly assigned to the imagery or the control group. Behavioral data related to the ability to perform each successive step of three manual motor sequences were collected at five intervals during the medical procedure. The results provided evidence that MI may facilitate motor recovery, and the belief in the effectiveness of MI was strong in all patients. MI may substantially contribute to improve the efficacy of conventional rehabilitation programs. Hence, this technique should be considered as a reliable alternative method to help burn patients to recover motor functions.

Effect of motor imagery and actual practice on learning professional medical skills

“…The association of MI with real practice led to better efficiency than in the ctrl group. Although the two groups achieved comparable final performance, learning was nevertheless facilitated during the early phases, as previously shown by Guillot et al, (2009). [39] Mulla et al (2012) observed that mental training alone cannot replace conventional training.…”

Best practice for motor imagery: a systematic literature review on motor imagery training elements in five different disciplines

“…Only two MI interventions could be classified in the age group 40 to 49 years [37,38]. The MI intervention described by Vergeer and Roberts was performed with healthy participants of both genders [37].…”

“…MITS elements resembled those of the average positive MI intervention, with group sessions and a multimodal approach for MI instructions ( written, visual and acoustic ). The second article, published by Guillot et al ., described an MI intervention with participants (male and female) who had burns [38]. The authors used added , individual , supervised and directed MITS.…”

“…Additionally, MI ability might change over an intervention period. In the current literature review, we found that assessments of MI ability had been used in thirty-six studies with positive results [36-38,54-83] and in five studies with no change or with negative results [84-88]. Heterogeneity between the MI ability assessments used, which were partially custom-designed for individual MI interventions, prevented direct comparison and relation to the study results in this review.…”

Motor Imagery and Action Observation as Effective Tools for Physical Therapy

“…Motor imagery studies were conducted on several diseases relating to the central nervous system and acute injuries involving orthopedics such as subacute stroke [15][16][17][18][19], chronic stroke [20][21][22], traumatic brain injury [23], multiple sclerosis [23], shoulder impingement syndrome [24], postsurgical anterior cruciate ligament [25], postsurgical flexor tendon repair [26], burn injury [27], phantom limb pain [28], complex regional pain syndrome [28,29], and motor coordination problems [30]. Table 1 lists motor imagery clinical studies found in PubMed.…”