Why does a medical doctor often tests the knee for reflexes? What is it really testing for ? Surely not that single area for a single purpose (reflex). What am I missing?
In: Biology
Your knee reflexes tell me in a broad sense what your neurology is like beyond the bottom of your spinal cord. Any issue in the cord can present as a problem distally, and since your knees are beyond the end of the cord and easy to prompt a reflex from, they’re an ideal place to test to rule out a spinal issue.
I dont actually care about your knees when I test the reflex, and if you say you have a problem with your knee testing the reflex there isn’t going to help either of us very much. Rather, testing the reflex at the knee can do 1 of 2 things: it can either help establish whether there is a neurological deficit, or help to localise where one is.
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