The validity of physical examination manoeuvres for meniscal injuries diagnosis

Abstract

When a meniscal lesion is suspected, a thorough physical examination is needed to properly guide the request for complementary tests and the treatment of each patient.

There are many functional and mechanical manoeuvres described in the literature to reproduce the symptoms associated with the meniscal lesion, but none of them is pathognomonic. Many times it is necessary to combine them, to obtain the maximum physical examination performance.

In the present literature review, we describe some of the more frequently used manoeuvres in the clinical setting for the physical exploration of the meniscal lesion, we review the diagnostic performance of each of them and finally, we propose a screening system to facilitate the diagnosis decision making, composed of the most cost-effective tests.