Reflexes
Now, let’s do the plantar testing. I personally prefer to use a key for plantar testing. That’s looking for the Babinski sign. It’s the most common plantar exam we test for. Now, I like the key because it’s got a bit of a point, but it’s not too sharp. You don’t need to get blood. Very important, do not press too hard, and what we’re doing here is we’re going at the bottom of the foot, the sole, on the outside, and curving up, and we care about mainly the big toe doesn’t go up.
There is also some importance to the toes fanning, but the most important is the big toe going up, and look at the direction of the big toe. If it goes up, that is an abnormal extensor plantar response, also known as a Babinski sign. If the toe goes down, it is a normal flexor response, and we say Babinski sign is absent.
Let’s try that. That toe actually went down a little bit. If it didn’t move at all, you might call it equivocal. Either way, it’s probably a normal response if it’s symmetric. See the toes go down? The big toe went down a little bit. That’s a normal response.