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Health and Medicine - What Is The Instrument A Doctor Uses To Check Reflexes?
What is the instrument a doctor uses to check reflexes?
A plessor or plexor or percussor is a small hammer, usually with a soft rubber head. Also called a reflex hammer or a percussion hammer, it is used by a doctor to stimulate reflexes by tapping on tendons. In the most common test, the patient sits on a surface high enough to allow his or her legs to dangle freely, and the physician lightly taps the patellar tendon just below the kneecap. This stimulus briefly stretches the quadriceps muscle on top of the thigh. The stretch causes the muscle to contract, which makes the leg kick forward.
The time interval between the tendon tap and the start of the leg extension is about 50 microseconds. That interval is too short to have been consciously ordered by the brain, thus the movement must be totally reflexive. This test indicates the status of an individual's reflex control of movement.
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