Brief Answer:
In brief- You're on the right track as things are going now.

Detailed Answer:
Good afternoon. I am a neurologist from XXXXXXX OH. Used to live in Boardman actually and had many fond memories of the Canfield area....I was on staff at XXXXXXX Community. However, I am back home in XXXXXXX and happy to answer this question. Essentially, to cut to he chase of the matter all one needs to remember is the following:

Approximately 50% of COMPRESSIVE TYPES OF RADICULOPATHIES meaning the type of radicular pain, numbness, tingling and so forth that you were suffering from with that lateral protrusion or hernia that was compressing the L3 nerve root, will resolve themselves over time with the most conservative of measures such as rest, appropriate physical therapy, perhaps some medication or a TENS unit if pain needs more aggressive control. The other 50% of people who have compressive radiculopathies will need more aggressive measures of intervention in order to find relief from the pain and sensory symptoms.

You seemed to have fallen into the 50% who are going to hopefully resolve on the basis of conservative therapy and sounds as if surgery may not be required in your case....at least not at this time.

The EMG you mention is simply giving you the technical mumbo jumbo that says in ELECTRICAL TERMS what the MRI says in VISUAL TERMS.....does that make sense? In other words, it's always nice when the PICTURES correlate with the EMG tests. We hate for one test to show something glaringly positive while the other test shows NOTHING at all.

In this case MRI showed a pretty definite evidence of a compression of the L3 nerve root by the disk at L3/L4 while the EMG confirmed those findings with electrical information demonstrating abnormalities in muscle response to the needle examination which absolutely correlates with the distribution of both the L3 and L4 nerve roots.

Impossible from these OR ANY FINDINGS quite honestly to predict with certainty that you WILL NOT NEED surgery in the future. That's more a function of your arthritis and its degenerative timetable of progression which differs from person to person. However, if you stay healthy, fit by exercise, and do not re-injure yourself, or if you find out where the fountain of youth may be located and go bathe in it.....THEN, you will keep surgery away for as long as possible.

If I were you with these results in hand and with the degree of improvement you've made clinically, I would highly suggestive NO SURGERY at this time and that just a very conservative approach with Physical Therapy and Physical Fitness programs will be more than adequate to keep good and sustained recoveries on track with spontaneous consolidation and remission of that herniated disk as well as prevention of more arthritic changes which we all must save....UNLESS WE'VE PARTAKEN OF THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!

If this question's answer is of some useful value to you please let me know with a little written feedback and a STAR RATING. Also, if there are no further questions or comments after what I've written I would greatly appreciate your closing the query on your end so that the transaction can be processed and the question and information stored by the system for future use by others.

This query required 21 minutes of physician directed review, research, and response compilation for envoy to patient.

Cheers and a Happy New Year!

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Brief Answer:
Can't tell improvement or not based on above findings

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the return question.

We cannot use your EMG test results to infer improvement or otherwise since you have only provided one set of results.

If you had another set of results that were obtained at some other time then, we could look for the differences in the spike discharges or insertional activity as it compared to some other point in time. That's what the 2+ numbers are referring to but again, only 1 set of data therefore, we can only comment on what things are like at the time the text is done and the needles are inserted.

I hope this information provides more insight into your problem and perhaps will help you formulate a few questions to ask your doctor when you finally get a chance to see him.

If you have any other questions you'd like to ask me in the future you can always get in touch with me through this website at bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi and I'll be happy to answer.

Of course, by the same token, Cleveland's not that far away from Canfield and so if you ever wished to consult here in the Big Browns Town where LeBron is king yet once again.....we could always make that arrangement! LOL.

Lots of luck to you on this problem. If you've received sufficient information to answer your question would you mind closing the query and making a few brief feedback comments on the quality of the responses I've given you with a STAR RATING?

This query required 23 minutes of physician directed review, research, and response compilation for envoy to patient.

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