Up to 80% of patients after
amputation are affected by
phantom limb pain. This may be due to various mechanisms of cortical reorganisation. Non-surgical treatment of the neuropathic
phantom limb pain involves
mirror therapy. Thereby, the use of a mirror should induce the illusion that the extremity has been preserved. This illusion should initiate processes to restore the original organisation of the somatosensory and motor cortex and thus to reduce
pain. Evidence of
mirror therapy to treat lower extremity
phantom limb pain is rare. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to qualitatively analyse the efficacy of
mirror therapy for treatment of
phantom limb pain in adult patients after unilateral
amputations of the lower extremity.The databases Medline (PubMed), Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), Cochrane Library (Central), and OPENGREY were systematically searched until 26th November 2020, followed by continued searches in these databases to provide a review of updated literature. Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias evaluation (Risk of Bias Tool [RoB]) of included studies were conducted by two reviewers independently. The primary outcome was
pain intensity, and secondary outcomes were
pain frequency,
pain duration, activities of daily life (
ADL), and quality of life. The methodology of this review follows the recommendations of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (
PRISMA) and the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.The search revealed 234 articles. Four articles were included in the analysis. A reduction in
pain intensity due to
mirror therapy was reported in all studies, however, in only 2 studies there were significant differences between
mirror therapy and the comparison after 4 weeks of treatment (p < 0.001; p < 0.05). This significant difference was maintained after 3 and 6 months follow-up in one of those studies (p < 0.001). The outcomes
pain frequency,
pain duration, and
ADL were decreased after 4 and 10 weeks of
mirror therapy compared to comparison, but with no statistical significance (p > 0.05). After 6 months, there was a significant improvement in the duration of
pain and in
ADL after
mirror therapy compared with the control group (p < 0.05). Differences in the results quality of life between the intervention group and comparison were observed in 2 studies.Mirror
therapy of high frequency and duration is an effective intervention to reduce
phantom limb pain in patients after unilateral lower extremity
amputation. The superiority of
mirror therapy to other interventions cannot be concluded, as the evidence was of low quality.