Tendon reflex may be tested by tapping the tendon of a muscle. This does not stretch the tendon but, by putting a momentary kink into its shape and by vibrating it, the muscle fibres attached to the tendon are suddenly stretched. The normal response to this is for the muscle fibres to contract together giving a jerk of tone in the muscle. Reference is, therefore, made to the knee, ankle and elbow jerks. In these cases the patellar tendon, tendo calcaneus and triceps tendon are struck once with a tendon mer and the appropriate response is awaited.
The lower limb, foot and forearm must be free to move if the full effect is to be observed. This method can be applied to any muscle tendon but these are the ones most commonly tested. If there is no response there may be interruption of the motor pathways between the spinal cord and the muscle indicating a flaccid paralysis of the muscle. It…
