A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:
- General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, body weight, body height; furthermore:
- Inspection (viewing).
- Skin (normal: intact; abrasions/wounds, redness, hematomas (bruises), scars) and mucous membranes.
- Gait (fluid, limp) [toe-tapping/waddling gait; no free walking until 18 months; knee hyperextension when walking].
- Body or joint posture (upright, flexed, relieving posture).
- Malpositions (deformities, contractures, shortenings).
- Muscle atrophies (side comparison!, if necessary circumference measurements).
- Muscle hypertrophy (thickening of existing muscle fibers) [calf hypertrophy].
- Joint (abrasions/wounds, swelling (tumor), redness (rubor), hyperthermia (calor); injury evidence such as hematoma formation, arthritic joint lumpiness, leg axis assessment).
- Palpation (palpation) of vertebral bodies, tendons, ligaments; musculature (tone, tenderness, contractures of paraverebral muscles); soft tissue swelling; tenderness (localization! ; restricted mobility (spinal movement restrictions); “tapping signs” (testing painfulness of spinous processes, transverse processes, and costotransverse joints (vertebral-rib joints) and back muscles); illiosacral joints (sacroiliac joint) (pressure and tapping pain?; compression pain, anterior, lateral or saggital; hyper- or hypomobility?
- Palpation (palpation) of prominent bone points, tendons, ligaments; musculature; joint (joint effusion?); soft tissue swelling; tenderness (localization!).
- Measurement of joint mobility and range of motion of the joint (according to the neutral zero method: the range of motion is given as the maximum deflection of the joint from the neutral position in angular degrees, where the neutral position is designated as 0°. The starting position is the “neutral position”: the person stands upright with the arms hanging down and relaxed, the thumbs pointing forward and the feet parallel. The adjacent angles are defined as the zero position. Standard is that the value away from the body is given first). Comparative measurements with the contralateral joint (side comparison) can reveal even small lateral differences.
- If necessary, special functional tests depending on the affected joint.
- Examination for Gowers sign [age: 3-5 years; raising from prone position to standing position is done with the help of own arms (= positive Gowers sign).
- Inspection (viewing).
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.
