[Mirror therapy for phantom limb pain--a systematic review].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review was to evaluate the evidence for the treatment of phantom limb pain with mirror therapy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Randomised controlled studies were identified by a systematic search strategy in the databases "Medline" and "The Cochrane Library". The studies were evaluated using the quality criteria of the JADAD-scale.

RESULTS: Three small-sized randomised controlled studies were identified. Unfortunately, these studies lacked methodological quality. One of them found a significant decrease of phantom pain after four weeks of daily mirror therapy sessions. Two other studies could not find a significant difference in the reduction of phantom limb pain between intervention- and control-groups. To date, there is only circumstantial evidence for mirror therapy in phantom pain. Hence, no firm recommendations regarding this treatment option are possible.

CONCLUSION: More sufficiently powered randomised controlled studies with high methodological quality are mandatory to investigate the analgesic effect of mirror therapy in phantom limb pain.