Pain perception in clinical electromyography.

In a prospective study of 93 electromyographic examinations including those of 42 men and 51 women, various factors relating to the experience were correlated with pain levels. Patients were asked to record their pain levels, and electromyographers were asked to record their perception of the patients' levels of pain on a scale of 0 to 4. It was found that the pain reported was not related to length of wait or of examination, number of surface areas studied, whether the findings on examination were normal or abnormal, the age of the patient, time of day, the electromyographic findings or the characteristics of the examiner. The data suggested that nerve conduction velocity studies are more uncomfortable for patients than needle electromyographic studies. The only other statistically significant factor appeared to be the patient's sex. All of the patients who reported no pain were male while 86% of the patients reporting maximum pain were females. The electromyographer's evaluation of the patient's pain perception was accurate in 84% of the cases.