Tests For Examination of the Lower Back - Everything You Need To Know - Dr. Nabil Ebraheim

Dr. Ebraheim’s animated educational video describing testing for lower back pain - clinical evaluation tests. Low back pain is common. There are several clinical evaluation tests used to assess patients with low back pain. 1-Straight leg raising test: elevation of a painful limb causes sciatica and radicular pain. The test is positive when the pain occurs with less than 60 degrees of hip flexion. The test stretches the sciatic nerve. When the sciatic nerve itself or one of the nerve roots irritated, the patient will experience pain that travels to the leg. The test can be modified by bending the knee. When the knee is bent, the pain gets better due to relaxing of the sciatic nerve. Once the patient feels the pain, lower the leg slightly and dorsiflex the foot. 2-Contralateral straight leg raising test: elevation of the non-involved leg, which is the contralateral leg, causes back pain and leg pain on the involved side. 3-Femoral nerve stretch test: this test is rarely done. The hip extensi