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Who's Afraid of Electrical Stimulation? Let's Revisit the Application of NMES at the Knee

Overview
Specialty Orthopedics
Date 2023 Oct 31
PMID 37904496
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Abstract

: Restoring quadriceps strength is essential for successful rehabilitation of knee injuries, but many athletes return to their previous activity with persisting muscle weakness. Strong evidence supports using neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) to improve quadriceps strength; however, there is a lack of widespread clinical implementation. We believe there is a critical need to provide clinical approaches that promote using NMES to improve patients' quadriceps strength and ensuring clinicians provide high-value rehabilitation care. : What is best practice when using NMES to facilitate strength after injury, what are barriers to its use, and how can they be addressed? : We discuss the low clinical implementation of NMES, perceived barriers to using NMES, and provide recommendations for setup and dosage parameters for effective use of NMES. : We aim for this commentary, with accompanying videos, to serve as a resource for clinicians who are using commercially available NMES units in clinical practice. .

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