Knee hammer is a medical instrument that is used by doctors and medical practitioners to test deep tendon reflexes. Testing for reflexes is one of the most important diagnosing tests of neurological diseases in order to detect abnormalities in the central or peripheral nervous system.
The most familiar reflex is the knee jerk, when a doctor taps on the tendon below your knee with a reflex hammer and that leg kicks out. The stimulus (the hammer) results in a signal being sent via a sensory nerve to the spinal cord.
