Children with neuromuscular disorders receive comprehensive care from our expert neuromuscular team, part of the neurology program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Why Choose Johns Hopkins All Children’s for Neuromuscular Disorder Treatment

Accurately diagnosing neuromuscular disorders can be difficult. Our team has the experience and expertise to ensure your child receives an accurate diagnosis and the most appropriate treatment to meet their unique needs.

Neuromuscular disorders affect the nerves and muscles in the body and how the muscles work. Depending on the condition, it may affect the nerves controlling the muscles, the muscles themselves, or the way the nerves and muscles communicate with each other.

We offer cutting-edge therapies, providing our patients with specialized care that meets their individual needs. Treatments we provide may include symptomatic treatment, surgical treatment, gene therapy, or other therapies such as antibody infusions.

We also provide surgical repair for nerve injury, working with our expert neurosurgery team to fix nerves after they are damaged.

What to Expect

Neuromuscular disorders may be diagnosed using several different kinds of testing, depending on your child’s needs. This may include:

• Blood test to check for high levels of muscle enzymes
• Clinical evaluation including detailed muscle strength examination
• Electromyography, or EMG (a recording of muscle tissue’s electroactivity)
• Genetic testing
• Muscle biopsy
• Nerve biopsy
• Nerve conduction studies (a measure of how quickly an electrical impulse moves through a nerve, which can identify nerve damage)
• Repetitive nerve stimulation test
• Skin biopsy

Children with neuromuscular disorders often need care from other specialists. We work closely with specialists throughout the hospital to provide your child with multidisciplinary care. This may include pulmonology, cardiology, genetics, orthopaedics, rehabilitation services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology and nutrition.

Conditions We Treat Include:

• Amyloid neuropathy
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)/Motor neuron disease
• Brachial plexus injury
• Channelopathies (Channel disorders)
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease
• Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy
• Congenital myasthenic syndromes
• Diabetic neuropathy
• Guillain-Barre and CIDP
• HIV neuropathy
• Idiopathic polyneuropathy
• Muscular dystrophy (Duchenne, FSHD, Limb-Girdle, myotonic dystrophy)
• Myasthenia gravis/neuromuscular junction disorders
• Myositis/dermatomyositis
• Nerve injury (carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, ulnar neuropathy)
• Paraneoplastic neuropathy
• Peripheral neuropathy (inherited, chemotherapy-induced)
• Small fiber sensory neuropathy
• Vasculitic neuropathy