Pain management for Oakville patients centers on diagnosis: EMG nerve conduction studies that tell cervical radiculopathy apart from carpal tunnel syndrome or peripheral neuropathy, and image-guided diagnostic blocks when the imaging is ambiguous. No referral is needed to book.
Oakville patients travel a fair distance, and they tend to do it for the diagnostic work rather than for a prescription.
Why patients come to us from Oakville
Nerve conduction testing and image-guided diagnostic blocks are not widely available south of the county, and they are precisely what a patient needs when the imaging is ambiguous and the symptoms are not.
The commonest question we answer for Oakville patients is whether arm or leg symptoms are coming from the spine or from a peripheral nerve. Those look similar, are treated completely differently, and are separated reliably by electrical testing rather than by another scan.
The roads around Oakville, and what they send us
Telegraph Road is the spine of Oakville, and I-255 provides the only fast route out.
Local geography also determines how late people present. Where the nearest alternative is close, patients try it first, and we tend to see the problems that did not settle rather than the ones that did.
Telegraph Road and I-255 carry the traffic, with the Jefferson Barracks bridge feeding Illinois commuters onto the same roads. Telegraph’s length produces a steady share of arterial collisions.
What we treat most for Oakville patients
EMG nerve conduction study
The test that separates a neck problem from a wrist problem.
Cervical radiculopathy
Arm symptoms following a nerve root map.
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Median nerve compression at the wrist, routinely confused with the neck.
Peripheral neuropathy
Confirmed and graded rather than assumed.
What this means for Oakville patients in practice
Arm and hand symptoms are among the most commonly misattributed presentations in medicine, because three different problems produce nearly identical complaints. A cervical nerve root, the median nerve at the wrist, and thoracic outlet compression all cause numbness, tingling and weakness in the hand.
The distribution is the first clue. C6 refers to the thumb, C7 to the middle finger, C8 to the little finger. Carpal tunnel takes the thumb, index, middle and half the ring finger, and characteristically spares the little finger entirely. Thoracic outlet tends to involve the little and ring fingers and worsens with the arms overhead.
Nerve conduction testing settles it objectively, which matters because the treatments do not overlap. Splinting and a carpal tunnel injection will do nothing for a C6 root, and a cervical epidural will do nothing for a compressed median nerve.
Planning the trip from Oakville
For Oakville patients the work most often centers on EMG nerve conduction study, cervical radiculopathy, carpal tunnel syndrome and peripheral neuropathy. Each of those has its own page setting out how it is diagnosed here and what treatment actually involves, and reading the relevant one before the appointment tends to make the visit more productive.
It is about forty minutes by I-255 and I-270 from here, so appointments are grouped deliberately. Blocks that must be separated in time are separated; everything else is combined.
Please bring imaging, medications and a short history of previous treatments with their outcomes. Where records exist elsewhere, telling us in advance lets us request them before you travel.
Thirty-five minutes each way, so we run nerve testing and the assessment in the same visit wherever possible and reserve a second trip for anything procedural.
We also see patients from Mehlville, South County and Arnold. The full list is on areas we serve.
To book, call or text us. Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We are at 12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 110, St. Louis, MO 63044 — about 35 minutes from Oakville, St. Louis County. No referral is needed to book and no attorney is needed to be treated after an accident.
What an EMG actually measures for Oakville patients
An electrodiagnostic study answers a question imaging cannot: whether a nerve is functioning normally, and if not, where along its course the problem lies.
Nerve conduction studies measure how fast and how strongly signals travel along a nerve. The needle portion samples electrical activity in muscle, which shows whether the muscle has lost its nerve supply and gives a rough sense of how long that has been true. Together they distinguish a compressed nerve root in the neck from a nerve compressed at the wrist or elbow, which can produce similar-sounding symptoms.
It is genuinely useful where the story and the scan disagree, or where surgery is being considered on the basis of an imaging finding that may not be the cause of the symptoms.
Questions we get from Oakville
Why can an MRI not answer this?
Imaging shows structure. Many people have visible nerve compression without nerve damage, and some have damage with unremarkable imaging.
EMG and Nerve Conduction Study explains what that looks like.
Is nerve testing painful?
Uncomfortable rather than painful, and short. Allow about forty-five minutes.
Can I drive myself home?
Yes. No sedation is involved.
Is the test uncomfortable?
The conduction portion involves brief electrical pulses and the needle portion a fine needle in a few muscles. Most patients tolerate it without difficulty and it takes under an hour.
That is the subject of EMG and Nerve Conduction Study.
What will it tell me that the MRI did not?
Whether the nerve is actually affected, and where. An MRI shows structure; this shows function.
Cervical Radiculopathy goes through it in detail.
12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 110
St. Louis, MO 63044
The map loads from Google, which sets its own cookies. We do not load it until you ask.
Hurt in an accident? Start here.
You do not need a lawyer, a police report or a referral to be seen. Bring your symptoms and we will work out the rest.
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Same-day appointments are often available for new accident and injury patients.