Muscle Tone-Muscle Attachments-Muscle Shape and Form

Muscle Tone

If a muscle is flaccid, then either the afferent, the efferent, or both neurons involved in the reflex arc necessary for the production of muscle tone have been interrupted. For example, if the nerve trunk to a muscle is severed, both neurons will have been interrupted.  SO Determination of the tone of a muscle is an important clinical examination. If poliomyelitis has involved the motor anterior horn cells at a level in the spinal cord that innervates the muscle, the efferent motor neurons will not function. If, conversely, the muscle is found to be hypertonic, the possibility exists of a lesion involving higher motor neurons in the spinal cord or brain.

Muscle Attachments

The importance of knowing the main attachments of all the major muscles of the body need not be emphasized. Only with such knowledge is it possible to understand the normal and abnormal actions of individual muscles or muscle groups. How can one even attempt to analyze, for example, the abnormal gait of a patient without this information

Muscle Shape and Form
The general shape and form of muscles should also be noted, since a paralyzed muscle or one that is not used (such as occurs when a limb is immobilized in a cast) quickly atrophies and changes shape. In the case of the limbs, it is always worth remembering that a muscle on the opposite side of the body can be used for comparison


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