Symmetrical Areflexia

Abstract

The presence or absence of proprioceptive reflexes per se has no functional significance. Chronic absence of the ankle jerk after recovery from a slipped disk does not make the gait awkward, nor does it impair rapid alternating movements of the feet. Nevertheless, symmetrical lack of reflexes indicates that there is or has been an affection of the peripheral nervous system, and therefore calls for a thorough neurologic and medical examination. Symmetrical attenuation of reflexes in the lower limbs relative to the upper limbs and to the masseter jerk, the only clinically relevant proprioceptive reflex in the distribution of the cranial nerves, has to be treated along the same lines.