The effect of acute abolition of knee joint afferent discharge on postural reflexes in the conscious cat.

Injection of local anaesthetic into the knee joint space in a series of 5 cats produced obvious postural abnormalities in 3 animals. However, on employing a more sensitive test, all animals exhibited abnormalities of postural reflexes on abolishing knee joint afferent discharge. Control experiments indicated that this could not be attributed to the local anaesthetic diffusing locally out of the joint capsule and affecting muscle and cutaneous afferents around the knee joint.