SUPPLEMENTARY MUSCLE MOVEMENTS In PERIPHERAL NERVE LESIONS

INTRODUCTION  The frequency with which more than one muscle may produce a similar movement of the segments about a joint emphasizes the necessity for the use of great care in the analysis of all muscle movements. This care is the more necessary in the study of peripheral nerve lesions because the muscles under consideration may receive their nerve supply from different sources.The preservation of certain movements the loss of which is supposed to follow particular nerve lesions has been observed for many years. Sherren¹ called attention to the fact that Swan, in 1834, was astonished at how much a rabbit could move its leg after experimental section of its sciatic nerve. Later Letievant² studied this phenomenon and termed it supplementary motility. Since that time numerous investigators have observed its presence in peripheral nerve lesions. To Duchenne³ and Beevor⁴ we owe much of the present knowledge