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
We don’t just check knee reflexes. We can check ankles, soles of your feet, biceps, triceps, jaw jerk, pupils, gag reflex, and several others too.
Each reflex gives us information about what might be going on. The ones at the joints, like the knee one that everybody knows, can give information about conditions affecting the entire body like electrolyte disturbances, but also by testing at different sites it can give information about where in the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves or muscles the problem is, and which side of the body is affected.
This information, coupled with assessment of muscle power, muscle tone, abnormal movements, gait, speech, cognition, vision, hearing, temperature sensation, vibration sensation, pain sensation, soft touch, pin prick sensation, joint position sense (with your eyes closed) can lead to the diagnosis.
To do a full neurological assessment takes a long time – by far the longest examination to perform on a patient if you are doing it properly and completely.
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