[Mirror feed-back - a new method for the treatment of neuropathic pain]

The mirror feedback therapy is a method for treatment of neuropathic pain syndromes that are associated with a missing or disordered afferent sensory input. That concerns especially the phantom limb pain, the pain after plexus or spinal nerve root injury and the complex regional pain syndrome. This therapeutic method has been increasingly implemented in the past few years. Its theoretical background rest upon recent pain research findings that refer to changes in the cortical organization and the influence of sensory and motor training effects on the pain experience. During the therapy the patients are instructed to use the mirror in a way that the image of the mirrored healthy limb seems to appear in the place of the missing or affected extremity. The mirror image produces an illusion of two "healthy" limbs. An ergotherapeutic training program with sensory and motor training elements based on the visual impressions is performed additionally.