From catching a ball to typing on a keyboard, even a slight discomfort can mar your ability to do what you need to do. When pain turns chronic, it can be a bit scary. If your pain seems to not have a direct cause or is caused by normal activities and is reoccurring, you’ll want answers as soon as possible.
At Northeast Spine and Sports Medicine, we explore every avenue to diagnosis and treatment to ensure that you are able to take the best route to alleviate pain. Proper diagnosis requires the proper tools, and we’d like to take this opportunity to highlight one particular tool in our arsenal—electrodiagnostic medicine.
Electromyography, or EMG, is an electrodiagnostic medicine technique that is used to evaluate and record electrical activity that is produced inside muscles. Using an electromyograph, doctors and specialists can detect the electric potential generated by muscle cells. The electromyogram, when properly analyzed, can detect the biomechanics of the selected muscle group pointing to any abnormalities like improper activation or recruitment order.
Electromyography is used for diagnosing issues from neuromuscular diseases to things like carpal tunnel.
At Northeast Spine and Sports Medicine, we also use Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) to get a better understanding of what might be happening in the nerves and muscles. Where EMG measures the level of electrical activity in muscles, NCS measures response time in the nerves. This is immensely useful in determining where the problem is and what it is affecting.
In most cases, after a consultation with one of our doctors, electrodiagnostic procedures can take about 60 minutes. More tests may be needed, but in most cases, a specialist can diagnose an issue like carpal tunnel by analyzing the results of the electrodiagnosis. Once the issue is diagnosed, a doctor can help you explore treatment options to reduce or alleviate pain.
With five locations in New Jersey, Northeast Spine and Sports Medicine is your resource for effective diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries, spinal issues, musculoskeletal problems, and other ailments. To learn more about electrodiagnosis and the other tools we employ to help our patients, please browse our site, or reach out to us at any time.
