Living with chronic pain can bring anyone to their wit’s end. While it’s normal to experience a little muscle soreness every now and then, normal muscle soreness generally goes away after a couple of days. Sometimes, what you think is muscle soreness is actually a pinched nerve.
If you notice that your muscle soreness isn’t going away, it’s time for further investigation.
At his practice with locations in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Philadelphia area, Dr. Steven Grossinger is a pain management expert who performs diagnostic tests, including EMG, to determine the root cause of your pain.
In this blog, Dr. Grossinger discusses pinched nerves and how an EMG can be a useful diagnostic test.
A pinched nerve refers to a nerve under significant pressure from surrounding tissue, disrupting the ability of the nerve to function properly.
A pinched nerve can happen in any part of your body. But pinched nerves in the back or shoulders are likely to cause chronic pain. It’s possible to overdo an activity and feel temporary pain, but pinched nerves should be considered if the pain is frequent or becomes chronic.
The symptoms of a pinched nerve include:
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, we can help determine whether you’re suffering with a pinched nerve.
Electromyography (EMG) is a safe and relatively painless test to discover whether your nerves are functioning properly. An EMG is one of the tools we use to detect and diagnose pinched nerves.
Dr. Grossinger and an experienced technician performs your EMG. During this test, they measure the pattern, size, and speed of nerve and muscle reactions. If those reactions aren’t normal, we use the results to develop a treatment plan.
The results of an EMG are the clearest way to identify that pinched nerves are the cause of your pain. But an EMG test is particularly useful because it shows which nerves are misfiring.
Treatment for pinched nerves varies but commonly begins with a conservative recommendation to rest. If you injured yourself performing activities involving repetitive motions, you may find that simply taking a prolonged break from these activities can allow your nerves to heal.
Often, however, by the time patients are troubled enough by the pain of a pinched nerve to seek medical attention, the pinched nerve needs more intervention.
We may recommend physical therapy to help rehabilitate the nerves and muscles to work correctly again. Physical therapy can also help with creating accommodations so that you don’t further aggravate the affected nerves.
In some cases, we may recommend surgery if your pinched nerves fail to get relief from more conservative methods. Surgery can release trapped nerves that are pinched between muscles.
If you have a pinched nerve, there’s no need to continue suffering. We can help you find relief and it all begins with the results of an EMG.
To schedule a consultation with Dr. Grossinger, call one of our three locations in Woodlyn and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, or request an appointment online.
