Clinical tests for lumbar spine and sacroiliac joint assessment: a review of literature

Abstract

Introduction: The most accessible and usual way for clinically diagnose lumbar and sacroiliac pain is the use of clinical orthopedic tests. Objective: To search support standard values for reliability and diagnostic accuracy for assessment of pain in the lumbar and sacroiliac joints. Methods: A systematic review in research databases such as PubMed, Embase, SciELO and Bireme was carried out. Results: From the 9.806 articles found, only seven were included in this review. The most usual orthopedic tests found for the assessment of the lumbar spine were the slump, Lasègue, Schöber and the segmentar instability tests. To assess the sacroiliac dysfunctions, the distraction, compression, thigh thrust, Gaenslen and the sacral thrust tests were the most prevalent. Conclusion: To diagnose lumbar dysfunctions slump and Lasègue tests have shown the best results of specificity and sensitivity, respectively. Two or more tests combined showed to be more reliable to assess the sacroiliac joint.