Assessment of Provocative Tests for Superior Glenoid Labrum Lesions

The ultimate challenge facing the clinician evaluating patients with shoulder pathologies is to meld the understanding of each of the pathologies that affects the shoulder with an efficient, accurate, and cost effective means to establish a diagnosis. Clinical identification of Superior Labrum Anterior to Posterior (SLAP) lesions is particularly difficult due to the proximity of the many muscular and ligamentous structures that can confound diagnosis. The patient and clinician would benefit if reliable diagnosis could be made using less costly alternatives to MRI and arthroscopy. There has been considerable interest within the orthopedic community in developing a provocative test or test that could be used to diagnose SLAP lesion pathology during physical examination. Consequently, at least 18 provocative tests have been created and are currently used by clinicians to detect SLAP lesions. This book, therefore provides an assessment of most of the currently used provocative tests by analyzing the muscle function and kinematics of each test. The analysis should enable the clinician to select the most efficient and accurate provocative test for aiding the diagnosis of SLAP lesions.