Introduction
In Europe, about one million people suffer from forms of paralysis in one or more parts of the body. The main causes of these forms of disability are cerebral ischemia, traumatic accidents and diseases of the nervous system.
The aim of our project is to bring to the medical/rehabilitation/sports training market an innovative method (VIKTOR Method) based upon modern physiological principles of functioning of the human body.
The VIKTOR Method is translated by us and applied through a series of electro-medical and mechanical devices that we have designed and marketed.
Technology and application
The Viktor Method is implemented through the workstation VIK16 which revolutionises the concept, limits, effects and use of electro-stimulation, maintaining its ease of administration.
Our equipment is designed to revolutionise the “FES” functional electro-stimulation sector, by generating:
- A significant improvement in the quality of life of the people involved;
- Major savings in national treatment systems, reducing hospitalisation costs for patients suffering from trauma and for the elderly;
- A standardisation of rehabilitation methods of the muscular systems and movement, with the possibility of personalising the protocols, according to the pathologies of the patients.
The problem with the current systems
The current electro-stimulation systems have severe limitations as they are actually unable to adequately replicate physiological patterns of movement. In general, there may be stimulation cycles combined with robotic machines (with no. 2, maximum no. 4 electric channels), strictly linked to a specific job, typically a single method of movement.
The patient in these cases is required to follow the rhythm of the machine without adequate control.
The benefits of the Viktor Method
hanks to our innovative method, we are able to stimulate all of the most important muscle groups of the human body (up to no. 16 stimulation channels) during each type of movement, providing an adequate FES rhythm linked to the patient’s actual movement.
That innovation allows for the coordinated execution of the motor action according to the electro-stimulation program combined with the activation of centres for controlling the movement of the cerebral cortex, providing activation affected by the biochemical processes of neuro-mediation and a centralised optimisation of control of movement.
How does it work?
It has been demonstrated that, if the activation of the muscle mass by the brain is replicated exactly with the same intensity produced by our nervous system, the brain recognises the movements as physiologically correct/coherent and automatically activates a series of functions that restore or improve the organisation of the nervous circuits linked to the relevant part of the body.
Our programs are based upon cyclical muscle movements and conform to physiological models.
Movement and electro-stimulation programs activate both the components of motor control and those of sensory control. Only this type of combination is recognised by the central nervous system, which stimulates the reactivation process of the functional capacities lost in patients suffering from trauma or neuromuscular dysfunction.
The equipment
In the first instance, we paid attention to creating a 16-channel Workstation known as VIK16, in which the Viktor Method is applied, specifically designed to be used in clinics, hospitals and sports clubs.
Until today, no one has been able to develop and supply, to a large number of users, a solution with equipment, programs and electrodes able to treat the synchronisation of a large number of muscle groups in a physiologically correct way. The VIKTOR Method with VIK16 does just that.