Pendulum Test: A Highly Accurate and Simple Physical Examination Maneuver to Identify Hip Pathology

Abstract

Background: Patients with hip pathology often complain of various symptoms, e.g. pain or discomfort of low back, lower extremity, hip, groin, thigh, buttock or knee. Physicians may be distracted by these complaints, and misdiagnose and mistreat hip pathology. To avoid this, the pendulum test, which is performed with a patient seated on the examination table and hips and knees are flexed at 90 degrees, while the examiner passively swings the patient's lower extremity in and out as a pendulum, has been employed for all patients with the complaint of low back, hip and knee. Objective: The efficacy and the accuracy of the pendulum test were evaluated. Patients and methods: Consecutive 40 patients, who had complained pain or discomfort of low back, lower extremity, hip, groin, thigh, buttock and knee were examined by the pendulum test. Results: Eighteen patients were positive for the pendulum test, and all of them correlated to the hip pathology. Conclusions: The pendulum test was confirmed to be easily performed and reliable in detecting the hip pathology. Therefore, this test is highly recommended for the differentiation of patients with low back, hip and knee complaints.