What To Expect

 Electrodiagnostic medicine is the study of diseases of your nerves and muscles. Your doctor has recommended an EMG test to see if your muscles and nerves are working right. The results of the tests will help your doctor decide what is wrong and how it can be treated. 

 You are being sent to the electromyography (EMG) lab because you have numbness, tingling, pain, weakness or muscle cramping. Some of the tests that the EMG doctor may use to diagnose your symptoms are nerve conductions studies (NCS) and needle EMG. The EMG doctor will examine you to decide which tests do. 

Nerve conduction studies – NCSs show how well the body’s electrical signals are traveling to a nerve. This is done by applying small electrical shocks to the nerve and recording how the nerve works. These shocks cause a quick, mild, tingling feeling. The doctor may test several nerves.

Needle EMG – For this part of the test, a small, thin needle is put in several muscles to see if there are any problems. It is used once for each patient and is thrown away after the test. There may be a small amount of pain during this part of the examination. The doctor tests only the muscles necessary to decide what is wrong. During the EMG test the doctor will be able to hear and see how your muscles and nerves are working by the electrical signals made by your muscles. The doctor then uses his medical knowledge to figure out what could be causing your problem.

 The American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine’s policy is that an appropriately trained doctor should do all needle EMG testing. A trained assistant or technologist under a doctor’s supervision can do nerve conduction studies. However, at Redding Spine and Sports Medicine the entire test is performed by a physician. 

Most people do not describe the test as painful, it can be a little uncomfortable at times but for the most part it is quite tolerable. 

 Doctors who do EMGs go to 4 years of medical school then have 3 or 4 more years of training in a residency program. Most work as neurologists or physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors. Medical training helps the doctor decide which tests to perform based on your symptoms. It teaches doctors what can go wrong with the human body and how to tell the difference between these problems.