Piron 2007

Methods	RCT
Participants	Study took place in Italy 38 participants: 25 intervention, 13 control Inclusion criteria: mild‐intermediate arm motor impairment due to ischaemic stroke in the MCA territory within the past 3 months Exclusion criteria: cognitive impairment, neglect, apraxia, aphasia interfering with comprehension Mean (SD) age: intervention group 62 (9) years, control group 61 (7) years 66% male Timing post stroke: intervention group mean (SD) 2.5 (1.5) months, control group 2.6 (1.6) months
Interventions	Virtual reality intervention: magnetic receivers were positioned on the participant's arm. As the participant grasped and moved real objects, software created a virtual environment which displayed virtual handling and target objects, for example an envelope and a mailbox, a hammer and a nail, a glass and a carafe. While performing the virtual tasks such as putting the envelope in the mailbox the participant moves the real envelope and sees on screen the trajectory of the corresponding virtual objects toward the virtual mailbox. Participants could see not only their own movement but also the correct trajectory that they had to execute, pre‐recorded by the therapist. This allowed participants to easily perceive motion errors and adjust them during the task Control intervention: 'conventional' rehabilitation focused on the upper limb Sessions were 60 minutes, 5 times a week for 5 to 7 weeks (approximately 25 to 35 hours total)
Outcomes	Outcomes recorded at baseline and post‐intervention Upper limb function and activity outcomes (arm): Fugl Meyer UE Scale Activity limitation outcomes: Functional Independence Measure Adverse events reported
Notes	—
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Personal correspondence with the author reports the use of a simple computer‐generated sequence
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Sealed, opaque envelopes
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Blind
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	There were 3 drop outs from the control group and the analysis was per‐protocol
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	No other outcomes were collected