A muscle causing pain in your body will often produce pain in an adjacent muscle.

This is what makes it so difficult to identify the actual source of your pain.  For example, most shoulder pain is felt in the Trapezius muscle, which travels from the top of your arm up into your neck. At NMPI we find that more than half the time the Trapezius is not the source of the pain. Rather, it is the Infraspinatus muscle, which lies on top of the shoulder blade. Treating the Trapezius in these cases, even though you feel the pain there, doesn't get rid of the pain - treating the Infraspinatus does.

The same situation exists in the low back as well. Pain may actually originate in the low back and be felt in the buttock. Or it may originate in the buttock and be felt in the low back.

So how do we know for sure which muscle is causing the pain?

Applying pressure to the tender areas of your back is not an accurate way to find out which muscle is the culprit. This is why the Muscle Pain Detection Device was developed. The MPDD uses technology that electrically identifies the muscle which is causing pain. In a randomized trial at NYU, the MPDD was shown to be more accurate than pressure in identifying the correct muscles and treating the actual source of pain.

November 30, 2009 - 12:53pm — Posted by Dr. Norman Marcus