"Suit Therapy" as a tool used during European-inspired Intensive Pediatric Physical Therapy
What is “Suit Therapy”?
A “therapy suit” is a European-inspired tool sometimes worn during intensive physical therapy. “Intensive Therapy” is defined by long bouts of therapy sessions lasting up to 4 hours per day (20 hours of therapy per week), five days per week for up to 4-week session. The medical device is used for aligning the child’s body, enhancing proprioceptive input, and accelerating the strengthening process. The patented Euro-Pēds® Therapy Suit is made of cloth and a series of changeable bungee-like cords that provide constant resistance and can be adjusted for desired alignment and intensity. Suit Therapy is sometimes, but not always, part of an Intensive Physical Therapy program.
The History of the Euro-Pēds® Therapy Suit
A body suit was originally developed to help cosmonauts suffering the effects of being in a gravity-free environment for an extended period of time. At times, cosmonauts were actually carried from the space shuttle after landing because they were unable to walk after extended periods of weightlessness. Without the compression of gravity, the cosmonauts’ spinal cords elongated about 2 inches. This, no doubt, caused neurological changes in their bodies. In addition, they did not have to use their muscles to fight against gravity in order to move around which caused risk for muscle atrophy and bone demineralization that can cause osteoporosis. The cosmonauts would also lose range of motion (ROM) and function in their muscles. Because of these significant effects, a Russian scientist designed the suit so that the cosmonauts would not suffer from the effects of the loss of gravity while they were in space. Children with cerebral palsy or other developmental disorders do not have the same cause of difficulty of movement that the cosmonauts did, but they suffer a lot of the same effects: decreased ROM, muscle weakness, and difficulty moving against gravity.
The first clinic outside of Europe to begin using Suit Therapy during intensive physical therapy sessions was Euro-Peds®, which opened in 1999 out of Doctors’ Hospital of Michigan in Pontiac, Michigan. As word spread about the success of intensive therapy and suit therapy, Euro-Peds® therapists began treating a nationwide base of children and the clinic was eventually renamed as Euro-Peds® National Center for Intensive Pediatric PT. As of 2010, the clinic had treated over 900 children from virtually every U.S. State as well as Canada, Jamaica and Portugal. The clinic employs licensed teams of physical therapists and physical therapy assistants and trains them on the European-inspired tools such as the new Euro-Peds® Therapy Suit (patented in 2010) and the Universal Exercise Unit (UEU). These specialized tools are used only by trained therapists within a clinical setting.
For more information or an application for your child to participate in the Euro-Peds® Suit Therapy program, please go to www.europeds.org or call 1-248-857-6776 for a mailed application.
