A company from Germany, Ottobock Professionals, specializes in assistive technology and prosthetics.
They recently made headlines with their latest creation: an electric body suit that helps people with conditions like MS and palsy walk.
As explained on the website of the company, this electric body suit consists of 58 electrodes. They send tiny electrical stimuli to 40 important muscle groups. The design is made to help lower the spastic muscles via neurostimulation.
How Does This Suit Help Enable Walking in Patients with MS and Palsy?
The inventor of the suit, Frederick Lundqvist, a chiropractor, explains that when the suit is turned on, the electrodes inside it are activated and they reach muscles that the brain is unable to reach.
Unfortunately, in the case of brain injury, some of the muscles are beyond the brain’s reach and this suit replaces the signal that the brain can’t make anymore, according to Lundqvist.
Ottobock note that the suit can only be worn for an hour, every other day. It’s an easy and on-demand option to improve mobility and alleviate the pain associated with spasticity.
The Design of the Suit
The jacket and pants of the suit are made using breathable and machine-washable synthetic materials which are free of animal products and fibers. The creator of the suit notes that these material don’t have major side effects.
Thanks to the button on the suit, the wearer feels in control. They will be in control of the spasticity symptoms and will be able to move freer and securer thanks to the reaction that the suit creates and the reduction of the tension in the muscles.
The Health Medical Centre Practice principal, Dr. Mark Jeffery said that most of the patients get a quick result. However, it’s important to be aware that this isn’t a magical therapy. The patients who experience benefit should keep going with therapy.
Still, Jeffery notes that with neural plasticity, there are probably new neural pathways developing and they’re good for the condition. This could result in the patient needing the device less and less.
What Does Science Have to Say about the Suit?
In a preliminary study, an hour of wearing the suit helped lower the symptoms significantly. And, the participants who kept wearing the suit four weeks later experienced lower pain.
What’s more, in a randomized case-control study from 2018 done with kids with spastic cerebral palsy at the Department of Children’s Rehabilitation at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences found that the kids who wore the suit for an hour, three times per week for a period of three weeks had as much improvement in their motor function and mobility as the kids who participated in physiotherapy.
In another non-randomized evaluation of 117 who used the suit in 2014, it was found that each of the patients reported at least some improvement.
Despite these important scientific findings, additional trials are necessary before the suit is widely available. Currently, it’s priced at $6,000.
Who Is Suitable to Wear the Suit?
The Exopulse Mollii Suit is designed for individuals with spasticity. This movement disorder may be associated with several neurological injuries and conditions.
The full-body assistive device is created to alleviate the tense and spastic muscles and the aches associated with the symptoms of spasticity. The users can also put on the suit when they need to manage the symptoms in the arms and legs.
The users who wore the suit like Louisa, David, and Max, said that being able to wear the suit even just for an hour makes all the difference in the day.
Louisa diagnosed with MS says the suit helped her better her gait, balance, and stability and makes her daily tasks much easier. Another patient with MS, David, said the suit helped him move free.
After only an hour, his arm, hand, and leg movements become easier and his coordination improved.
Max who has cerebral palsy explains that being able to wear the suit helped keep him safe and stable and provided him with the control and confidence necessary for a steady walk.
Sources: