Dave,

I don't buy that EMG's are conclusive either. But my surgeon went ahead with surgery. I don't think every surgeon bases his recommendation solely on the EMG results. Mine did some very simple compressions of my nerve with his hand and just waited for me to feel it and before he even saw my EMG results, said that he thought I was compressed in the Cubital and Guyon's Canal. Yes the EMG confirmed the Cubital but not the Guyon's. He still recommended surgery on both. Talk to your doctor. Let him know all your concerns and how you feel about the results. If he/she doesn't seem to be listening, maybe seek another opinion.

Dave,

I also agree with the rest of the members. I had symptoms of CuTS but nothing showed up on the EMG/NVC...everything came out normal. Went to PT and that made it worse. Finally the doc agreed to due surgery at my persistence and he found that my ulnar nerve was glued to my muscle. Which brought me to a decompression surgery. So my advice would be persistent with your doc. These tests are not 100% accurate.

Hey guys,

This is alarming to hear that the EMG can completely miss even severe compressions. Makes it seem like the test is an absolute waste of time and money.

I'm pretty frustrated now. Not a word from my doctor. I guess I am going to have to make the next move and ask for a MRI of my neck or maybe seek out another othropedist.

I told the neurologist that it was just strange that the focus of my pain is right in the elbow when the nerve is indeed being compressed at the neck, but he said it can give pain this way.

And now that I'm really worried about my neck again, my body has given me a nice gift by making my neck ache and not feel normal. There is so much conflicting info out there, it's hard to know who to trust with this problem.

Is it reliable if the nerve conduction & EMG *does* show a problem? Mine did. Even then I was having pain in my shoulder area & neurologist thought it was caused by compression at elbow. Surgeon also thought doing decompression should help with shoulder pain, but it hasn't. I think surgery did help with pain/numbness in my hand, though, so it probably needed to be done, but am discouraged that it did not even come close to resolving all my pain problems.

Hey Lynne,

I'm pretty sure that there are way more false negatives than false positives with the emg/ncv testing. However, skill of the practitioner still plays a role in any diagnostic testing. Have you had neck issues ruled out? If you're still having problems that should probably be the next step.

Hang in there,

Chris