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20 April 2022

Gondola Professional: a therapeutic device designed for healthcare professionals

Today, we are happy to introduce Gondola® Professional, a version of our device specifically designed to be used by trained healthcare professionals for outpatient or in-hospital use.

Exactly like Gondola® Home, Gondola® Professional can rapidly improve walking and balance in patients affected by neurological disorders (for example, Parkinson’s Disease and Stroke) by delivering AMPS (Automated Mechanical Peripheral Stimulation), a non-invasive therapy based on the mechanical stimulation of 4 points located on the patient’s feet (2 points for each foot). A complete therapeutic session lasts less than 2 minutes, and the benefits are immediately visible and can last up to 5 days.

Is Gondola® Professional delivering the same therapy than Gondola Home?

The therapy delivered by Gondola® Professional is exactly the same as Gondola® Home as it consists of applying a sequential mechanical pressure on four specific target stimulation points, the first metatarsophalangeal joint and the head of the big toe of both feet. Activating the cutaneous mechanoreceptors at these target areas triggers a peripheral sensory input that travels towards the brain, increasing sensory integration and brain plasticity. As a consequence of the treatment, the efficiency of descending pathways increases, and walking performance is immediately improved.

Gondola AMPS therapy is particularly helpful in:

  • 1Increasing walking speed
  • 2Increasing stride and step length
  • 3Reducing the risk of falling
  • 4Improving postural stability and dynamic balance
  • 5Improving handling freezing of gait episodes  
The clinical efficacy of Gondola AMPS therapy has been documented by multiple scientific articles published in international peer-reviewed journals*
  1. Barbic F, et al. J Appl Physiol. 2014;116(5):495-503.
  2. Quattrocchi CC, et al. PLOS ONE. 2015;10(10):e0137977.
  3. Stocchi F, et al. Int J Rehabil Res. 2015;38(3):238-245.
  4. Galli M, et al. IJEIT. 2015;4(11):9.
  5. Kleiner A, et al. Park Dis. 2015;2015:1-6.
  6. Galli M, et al. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2018;54(6):860-865.
  1. Kleiner AFR, et al. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2018;99(12):2420-2429.
  2. Pagnussat AS, et al. Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2018;36(2):195-205.
  3. Pinto C, et al. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2018;97(6):383-389.
  4. Pagnussat AS, et al. Acta Neurol Scand. 2020;142(3):229-238.
  5. Prusch JS, et al. Funct Neurol. 2018;33(4):206-212.
  6. Zamunér AR, et al. J Hypertens. 2019;37(8):1714-1721

So, what’s the difference between the two devices?

Gondola® Professional has the advantage of being adaptable to a large variety of feet shapes and sizes, thus allowing the treatment of different patients. The therapist can use Gondola® Professional to test the specific effect of AMPS therapy on new patients to evaluate, for example, to which extent AMPS can improve gait and balance in specific subjects and how long they should expect to maintain the benefits of each session.

To allow greater flexibility to the therapist, Gondola® Professional is provided with 4 different sizes of insoles (one for each foot) that can accommodate virtually every foot ranging from EU size 35 to 46 **

“Furthermore, we recently developed a new tool that helps find the META stimulation points on the sole of the feet: the Metafinder. We will provide this tool together with the Gondola Professional to make it more manageable for the therapist to find the exact stimulation points.

 

 

 

**Severe foot deformities may prevent access to the specific stimulation points, thus limiting the possibility of delivering the therapy.

Therapist looking at Gondola for the setup
Before each stimulation, the patient’s feet are inserted and secured to each unit, and a precise configuration of the stimulation tips is performed based on the specific anatomy of each patient’s foot. During the configuration (including the setting of stimulation intensities) and the therapy, the patient must lie on the examination bed. Therefore, the therapist has a complete and clear view of the stimulation areas (picture of Maurizio setting the pins). Because of the importance of performing a very rigorous and precise device configuration for each patient treated with Gondola® Professional, only healthcare professionals trained at one of our Gondola® Specialized Centers are allowed to use the device and deliver the AMPS therapy.

If you are interested in learning more about Gondola Professional®, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@gondola-medical.com or call us at +41 (0)91 921 3838