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Document Title: Ellenbecker-EKLR-Ch03-2000.shtml
Article Title: Clinical Examination
Author: Todd S. Ellenbecker, MS, PT, SCS, CSCS
Publication: Knee Ligament Rehabilitation, edited by Todd S. Ellenbecker.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Churchill Livingstone (Harcourt), 2000. (This book
has 51 contributing authors and 465 pages.)
Pages: 24-39
Keywords: Knee-injury diagnostics, ligament tests, manual drawer testing, Lachmann drawer test, anterior-drawer test, posterior-drawer test, valgus-stress stress, varus-stress test, pivot-shift test.
(Reference-denoting numbers appear in the same font and point size as the document text. As with all Knee Library documents, this article is provided in full-text form, complete with all figures and tables. Although this article has been published as a book chapter, it can be read independently of the other chapters in the book. Other chapters from this book can be found here.)
Comments: This article (book chapter) gives an excellent overview of the manual-manipulation tests which must be performed on a knee suspected of harbouring ligamentous injuries. Note that in cases where test results are inconclusive, the problem is often traceable to the masking effect of residual tenseness in the knee-surrounding musculature. Such tenseness is a common consequence of a knee-ligament injury, and (for testing purposes) can be alleviated by repeating the testing under anesthesia.
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Introduction
A comprehensive examination of an individual with a suspected injury to the ligamentous structures of the knee is the initial step in the complete treatment and rehabilitation process. Knowledge of the anatomy and biomechanics of the knee joint is of paramount importance, as is an understanding of the demands of the human knee in daily activities as well as in sports-specific movement patterns. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize salient portions of the examination process for the patient with a suspected acute or chronic knee ligament injury. Although it is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide an exhaustive description of all knee examination procedures, the reader will be directed, where applicable, to sources contained within and beyond this text.
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