Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES)

Benefit/Purpose:  Prevent disuse muscle atrophy, neuromuscular re-education, alleviates swelling/muscle spasms, and improve circulation to the treated areas.

NMES works by sending an electrical impulse into a muscle group, eliciting a contraction.  For a muscle to contract, the central nervous system will send an electrical signal through the body via neurons. Once this signal reaches its destination, the result is called an action potential.  Once these action potentials build within the cells of muscles, the physiological effects result in a muscle contraction.  NMES works by mimicking the action potential at a specific muscle group.

NMES is particularly effective for patients that are immediately post-surgery and are not able to or not allowed to use the limb they had surgery on or patients that have neurological impairments.  When muscles are not used, they lose mass very quickly (referred to as muscle atrophy).  NMES serves as a tool to help slow and/or prevent atrophy.  Additionally, by mimicking the action potentials in a muscle group, NMES can help re-educate the nerves in the area so that a patient suffering from neurological dysfunction can begin to progress towards function.  When working with neurologically impaired patients, I will often perform various functional exercises with patients while their muscles are contracting with NMES, which emphasizes neuromuscular re-education.

NMES is a safe, non-invasive modality and during treatments, many pets can feel their muscles activating in a pulsing “twitch”, but this is kept at a comfortable intensity.  NMES is different from TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation).  TENS is widely used in human physical therapy for pain relief.  While both modalities look very similar, multiple studies show that NMES does not provide any pain relief.  Many home going units are combination units and have the capabilities to do both NMES and TENS.  These units are what I use and will sell to clients as needed.

What to expect:  The treatment session usually will take 10-20 minutes.  The treatment area may be shaved and water-soluble gel applied. A pair of soft electrodes are applied to the skin in order to stimulate muscle contractions.  Your pet will experience a mild tingling sensation and undergo alternating muscle contractions for 10-15 seconds, followed by a 20-30 second rest.