Hypertonia

Hypertonia

In this video, the examiner is testing the tone of the lower limbs. After ensuring that the patient is fully relaxed, he first of all rolls each leg using both hands – one placed above the knee and another below the knee. Then, the examiner lifts up each leg at the level of the popliteal fossa. Besides…

Clonus

Clonus

In this video, the presence of ankle clonus is being tested. Clonus is defined as a series of rhythmic, involuntary muscular contractions induced by sudden passive stretching of a muscle or tendon. To test for ankle clonus, the leg and foot should be relaxed and the knee and ankle placed in a slight flexed position….

Muscle Wasting / Muscle Atrophy
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Muscle Wasting / Muscle Atrophy

One can appreciate from this photo that there is significant lower limb wasting (or muscle atrophy) of the right leg compared to the left. The right leg is also shorter compared to the left. Muscle wasting (or atrophy) is due to denervation of the muscle supplied by the motor nerve and occurs in lower motor…