neuromuscular electric stimulator (NMES), a device for improving or modulating muscular activation. It may be a portable unit for home treatment of a patient over a long period of time or a large clinical model capable of producing a wider variety of waveforms and modulations of the stimulus. The NMES generates electrical pulses that produce controlled muscle contractions similar to those that occur physiologically. Unless nerve degeneration has occurred, muscles that are weak or paralyzed because of central nervous system involvement should contract when NMES is applied. The procedure may be tested first on an uninvolved muscle on the same or another extremity to establish a normal response.
