What is the Mollii suit?
- A wearable tool to enhance your therapy for people living with muscle tone and movement disorders. These include spasticity, spasms, dystonias, ataxias, muscle weakness and hypotonia as well as fatigue and pain.
- It prepares the muscles so your treatments become more effective and enabling easier therapy and exploration of function.
- The Suit is individually programmed and designed for regular use at home by the client to improve ease of movement, positioning, posture and muscle control.
- Worn for only 60 minutes, Mollii’s benefits last up to 48 hours, supporting your treatment goals and helping long-term motor re-learning.
How does it work?
- 58 soft electrodes built-in to the jacket and trousers deliver sensory-level electro-stimulation to each muscle group as needed. Worn for just 60 minutes every other day at home, it fits in to daily life and therapy.
- The stimulation naturally induces reciprocal inhibition to reduce muscle tone and movement disorders where needed. This also activates the weaker agonist muscles, helping functional ability, better posture and control.
- These effects combine to achieve more balanced muscle tone and better functional co-ordination, enhancing other therapy and treatments. This can also relieves the aches and pain that often come with these symptoms.
- Mollii helps muscles to be prepared for your therapy sessions thanks to the carry-over of its effects lasting up to 48 hours from each 60 minute session.
- The benefits from regular use, enhance long-term neuroplasticity and motor re-learning too.
- Each candidate’s needs are individually assessed by a Mollii-trained therapist and programmed into a sample Suit at a first assessment. The initial outcomes and neurological effects appear after just 60 minutes.
- The Mollii Suit is available in many standard sizes for children from 3 years upwards and adults up to over 115kg/18 stone.
What can Mollii be used for?
- Reducing Spasticity, Spasms and Hypertonia - Easier and better range and control of active and passive movements, better posture and relief of aches and pain.
- In Muscle Weakness and Hypotonia - Activating muscles to faciliate training, rehabilitation and function as well as helping posture, balance and alignment.
- For Neglect or Inattention - The sensory and proprioceptive input helps support spatial awareness, balance and muscle control.
- In Dystonic, Athetoid, Dyskinetic and Ataxic conditions – Reducing prominent patterns of unwanted movement to helping to improve positioning, muscle control and desired movement as well as for more comfort and calm. This is achieved by the combination of muscle inhibition and activation simultaneously in different muscles.
- For Pain Relief – Mollii’s low frequency stimulation helps relieve tense and aching muscles and reduce pain associated with neurological and other chronic conditions.
How does it do this?
- Reducing Spasticity, Spasms and Hypertonia - Stimulation of selected opposite muscle groups to the overactive side prompts reciprocal inhibition, reducing spasticity, spasms and hypertonia and can reduce rigidity.
- In Muscle Weakness and Hypotonia - The Suit’s stimulation supports pre-activation of agonist muscles at the same time as reciprocal inhibition of the antagonist, helping easier initiation of movement and control where needed.
- For Neglect or Inattention - The sensory-level stimulation enhances feedback for better motor output and easier, more co-ordinated muscle control.
- In Dystonic, Athetoid, Dyskinetic and Ataxic conditions - Targeting stimulation to counteract the unwanted movements and overactive muscles enables a more balanced and centred posture to be achieved. This allows easier control and function, benefitting both therapy and client well-being.
- For Pain Relief - Mollii’s TENS-type of low frequency stimulation at 20Hz prompts pain reducing mechanisms: the pain-gate mechanism, activating μ-opioid receptors in the spinal cord and brainstem and increasing spinal serotonin levels.
Who is Mollii for?
Almost anyone, adults and children as young as 3 years old with:
- Cerebral Palsy - all types, GMFCS I - V
- Brain Injury - acquired and traumatic
- Multiple Sclerosis – relapsing/remitting, primary and secondary progressive stages, transverse myelitis
- Spinal Cord Injury – incomplete and complete lesions
- Stroke – all types
- Other neurological conditions, chronic pain and syndromes such as fibromyalgia.
Suits are available in many standard sizes, for children from about 3 years and adults up to 115kg / 18 stone and 2m / 6ft 6in tall.
Side-effects, Contraindications and Cautions
Side-Effects:
Beneficial side-effects are regularly reported by clients using Mollii such as pain relief, reduced fatigue/improved energy, improved sleep and improved bladder and bowel function as well as reduced need for some medications. Surveys of clients have reported cancellation of other treatments including surgery.
Adverse effects may occur but are easily managed or prevented. These can include temporary marks or skin irritation from the electrodes after use which fade quickly or can be helped with washing and moisturiser. Bladder sensitivity has occasionally been reported which can be avoided with adjustments to stimulation settings.
Contraindications:
Mollii is currently contraindicated for people who have implanted magnetic or electro-magnetic devices including shunts, pacemakers, vagus stimulators, intrathecal baclofen pumps, cochlear implants.
Cautions:
Some other conditions such as epilepsy, malignancy, cardiac conditions or broken skin require review before assessment. Contact us for further information.
How do I obtain a Mollii for my patient/client?
Contact us to arrange a Mollii assessment for your patient or client. This will reveal the initial outcomes and neurological effects for your patient/client to help decide on the next step.
After the assessment we provide you and your client with a report and options to purchase and/or rent a Suit.
Each person considering Mollii requires an individual assessment by a trained Mollii therapist to programme a Suit to meet their needs and goals. The candidate wears a sample Suit for one 60-minute session of stimulation to reveal the initial outcomes and effects.
Remotion Ltd, the UK distributor arrange individual professional assessments by Mollii-trained therapists in locations around the UK.
Where has this clever suit come from?
Developed in Sweden from 2009, the Mollii Suit methodology was found to be particularly helpful to reduce spasticity and other muscle tone and movement disorders in adults and children with various neurological conditions.
Making it into an easily wearable garment was the key challenge for development. This was achieved with leading Swedish medical research and development institutes to produce forerunners of today’s version. The Suit was launched as a registered medical assistive device in 2012 across Europe is now used in many countries beyond. Information about the studies and clinical trials on Mollii can be found here.
A Professional View – Prof Naji Riachi, Head of Neurology, Lebanese American University,
Beirut describes his experience of using Mollii for patients with neurological conditions for
movement and muscle tone disorders as well as other purposes.
General enquiries