Nervous System Flashcards
AVPU
Alert (eyes are open)
Verbal stimuli
Painful stimuli
Unresponsive
Glasgow coma scale
Eye opening
Motor response
Verbal response
Praxis
Knowing how to use objects (cell phone, hairbrush, etc.)
Assess CN I
Patient closes eyes and occludes one nostril and smells one scent
Patient then smells out of other nostril another scent
Assess CN II
Have patient read Snellen or Rosenbaum chart
Confrontation testing
Assess CN III, IV, and VI
For III only – pupillary response
For all of them – their eyes following your finger
PERLA
Pupils Equally round and Reactive to Light and Accommodation
Assessing CN V
Sensory – touch the patient’s face at the three spots where the CN V branches leave the skull
Motor – have the patient raise and lower their jaw, and move it from side to side
Assessing CN VII
Have the patient move the muscles of their face (tightly close eyes, purse lips, etc.)
If there’s damage to the CN VII at the origin of the nerve and you ask them to wrinkle their forehead, what will happen?
It will be symmetric on both sides, but weakened
If there’s damage to the CN VII at the periphery and you ask them to wrinkle their forehead, what will happen?
The side of the damage will not wrinkle
Assessing CN VIII
Whisper test, Weber test, Rinne test (auditory)
Dix-Hallpike maneuver (vestibular)
Assessing CN IX and X
Test by having patient say, “ahh”
Gag reflex
Assessing CN XI
Resisted head turning and shrugging shoulders
Assessing CN XII
Have them protrude tongue (deviates to side of lesion)
Have them push their tongue against resistance
Motor examination
Tone and bulk of muscle
ROM
Gait
Strength of muscles
Paresis
Weakness
Plegia
Semi-paralysis
Paralysis
Can’t move it
Hypertonia
Spasticity, ridigity, and paratonia
Reflexes and spinal cord levels
Biceps (C5-6) Triceps (C6-7) Brachioradialis (C5-6) Patellar (L3-4) Achilles (S1)
Reflex grading
0 = absent 1 = reduced 2 = normal 3 = increased 4 = clonus (can't stop reflex)
Plantar response
Stroke sole of patient’s foot
Normal is for all toes to flex (after age of 2)
Cerebellar testing
Rapidly alternating movements
Point-to-point movements
Assessment of balance/gait
Parkinson’s disease gait assessment
Forward or backward propulsion when asking them to walk
Pronator drift
Have the patient hold their arms out and close their eyes
If they’ve suffered from a stroke, over time their arm will pronate and drift across their body
Affect
Person’s external expression of his/her emotional state