Electrical Stimulation

What is Electrical Stimulation?

Electrical Stimulation, or "e-stim", is one of the modalities we can incorporate into our patient's treatment plan. While it may sound a little scary, e-stim is safe, effective, and can actually feel quite pleasant for our patients! Many physical therapists and chiropractors use it for their human patients, mainly for muscle relaxation.

While we can use it to soothe tense muscles, here at HVAH we often employ it as a low impact approach for muscle strengthening. By stimulating the nerve fibers, we are encouraging the muscle tissue to contract in a similar way to how they would during exercise. For patients who are unable to safely perform therapeutic exercises, this method of contracting the muscle works to help build strength and prevent atrophy or weakening of the muscle during recovery. This stimulation also increases blood flow to the muscle, which is crucial for tissue health and growth.

Like our human counterparts, we can also use e-stim for pain control and relief of muscle tension, as the stimulation of nerve fibers can have a pain-relieving effect.

To perform e-stim, we will have the patient will sit or lie down on a comfortable bed in our rehab room. We will clip the hair around the area of treatment, and small electrode pads will be placed at the motor point (the area in which the motor nerve enters the muscle) using a special gel. Treatment time varies depending on the patient and what they need, but is generally under 15-20 minutes. During this time our rehab technicians will pet, soothe, and give treats to the patient to make it as enjoyable an experience as possible!