Contraction response to muscle percussion: a reappraisal of the mechanism of this bedside test

The contraction response to muscle percussion was first described in 1858 by Schiff who called it "idiomuscular contraction" in the belief that it was of muscular origin. Subsequently, it was noted that this response was diminished in patients with primary myopathic disorders (Babinski and Jarkowski, 1911; Patel and Swami, 1969) and in case of denervation (André-Thomas and de Ajuriaguerra, 1949), prolonged in patients with myotonia (Dejerine, 1914), and retained (Guillain et al., 1916) or even enhanced (Ropper et al., 1991) in Guillain-Barré patients.

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