Below is a transcript of a discussion between myself and one of our BJC physiotherapists, Rachael Butterworth about how to perform the Hip Abduction Test.
You will also find the video below, should you prefer to watch it.
Robert: Hello. My name is Robert Russo and I'm a rheumatologist and I work at BJC Health. Today I'm going to ask our physiotherapist, Ms. Rachael Butterworth, to show us the hip abduction test. This is a useful test in the assessment of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. So with that, Rachael.
Rachael: Thanks Rob. I'm going to show you the hip abduction test that we use for assessing hip movement in akylosing spondylitis. The first thing we do is have the patient lying flat on the bed. Then we have a board here to allow for more movement than what the bed can cope with.
The first thing we're going to ask the patient to do is keep the legs nice and straight, feet pointing to the ceiling, and they're going to separate their heels as far out as they can. What you're going to do is measure from one medial malleolus to the other side and measure what that is.
Robert: Thank you Rachael for that fantastic demonstration of the hip abduction test. What range did Errol have?
Rachael: Errol measured at 108 centimeters.
Robert: Is that a normal range?
Rachael: It's a little bit below normal. One hundred and twenty centimeters is what we would express as a good value, but 108 centimeters just shows that he has mild restriction in his hip joints.
Robert: Does that mean Errol has ankylosing spondylitis?
Rachael: No, definitely not. There's a lot of other investigations that need to be done to clarify if Errol would have ankylosing spondylitis.
Robert: Thanks again Rachael for showing us the hip abduction test.
