Apley’s distraction test – What is the purpose, indication and relevance?

Apley’s Distraction Test: Client is prone with knee flexed to 90°. Practitioner stabilizes the upper leg by placing their knee on the back of the patient’s thigh and applies traction to the lower leg while rotating the tibia medially and laterally.

Purpose:

• Assess for ligament injury

Indications:

• Knee injury

Relevance:

• Positive test – typically pain and hyper or hypomobility with distraction is indicative of a ligamentous injury

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This post was written by Omar Rifai