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Shoulder Abduction Test for Cervical Radiculopathy

This video demonstrates how to perform the Shoulder Abduction Test, a physical assessment used to diagnose cervical radiculopathy. Learn how to properly identify and assess patient symptoms to improve patient outcomes.

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00:04 - 00:07This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute, and in this video I'm going to show you
00:07 - 00:11the shoulder abduction test for cervical radiculopathy. I'm going to have my friend
00:11 - 00:15Yvette come out, she's going to help me demonstrate. This is a fairly simple test,
00:15 - 00:19but it's a test that I think has transference to things you might
00:19 - 00:23see in the individuals daily activity. So I want you to keep your eyes out for
00:23 - 00:26this one, here's how this works. Somebody comes in with cervical
00:26 - 00:33radiculopathy signs. So maybe on our subjective exam Yvette was complaining
00:33 - 00:38about some right-sided neck pain. Maybe she has some tingling tight stuff, maybe
00:38 - 00:43some cramping in one of her arm muscles, right like you know how like sometimes
00:43 - 00:48cervical radiculopathy patients get that unremitting fatigue feeling
00:48 - 00:51right, and she's getting some tingling in her fingertips. So we know some
00:51 - 00:54nerve involvement is happening and we know the neck is involved because that's
00:54 - 00:59where she's got this pretty harsh pain. The test itself goes like
00:59 - 01:03this, hey in this position any change in your symptoms? (No).
01:03 - 01:09So you still feel all the stuff? Okay that's that's unfortunate. Do me a
01:09 - 01:17favor, if you do this, how does that feel? (Better). That feels better, okay that's a positive
01:17 - 01:21test, that's it, that's it. This is the shoulder abduction test, not a
01:21 - 01:26complicated test, a specific test though. So if you get a positive, research shows
01:26 - 01:29that actually that's a pretty good indicator that we have cervical
01:29 - 01:34radiculopathy, not very sensitive so don't give much weight to the no, but
01:34 - 01:37let's do that one more time and think about this for a second.
01:37 - 01:41Can you move that one more time for me. So can you imagine
01:41 - 01:47if we do this, she just took a bunch of tension off her brachial plexus.
01:47 - 01:53She probably took some tension off a couple of the nerves in her arm
01:53 - 02:00just by kind of bending at the elbow, going into a little bit of of elevation
02:00 - 02:05at the scapula. The rest of this is all in a nice relaxed position, so if
02:05 - 02:11I take some tension off these nerves you can imagine how symptoms should go
02:11 - 02:16down. Now here's what I was talking about with keeping in mind with daily
02:16 - 02:22activity, how many people have you seen walk in to
02:22 - 02:29the clinic or maybe just even around a restaurant, or even at home and the first
02:29 - 02:36thing they want to do when they sit down is what? So if somebody comes
02:36 - 02:43in with neck pain and their first position they want to get into when they
02:43 - 02:49try to relax is this, I would think in the back of your head wow that
02:49 - 02:53could be a cervical radiculopathy sign. I'm not saying
02:53 - 02:57catastrophize this, that doesn't mean that everybody who rocks is like this
02:57 - 03:01has cervical problems, that is not what I'm saying at all, but if someone comes
03:01 - 03:06into your clinic with neck pain and you were not thinking cervical radiculopathy
03:06 - 03:14before, maybe seeing somebody do this as their relaxation position is a good
03:14 - 03:20indicator for you to do your cervical radiculopathy cluster. So
03:20 - 03:24that we do get a good indication of whether that is the diagnosis that we're
03:24 - 03:29working with, because that might change the way we treat just a little bit. All
03:29 - 03:33right so again just a quick review, super easy,
03:33 - 03:37you're going to assess the patient's symptoms in sitting and try to be
03:37 - 03:40consistent about the way you sit, like I would make Yvette sit with pretty decent
03:40 - 03:44posture here, I wouldn't let her slouch, and then I would ask her how her
03:44 - 03:50symptoms are in this position. If she's a fairly irritable cervical radiculopathy,
03:50 - 03:55she has some pretty good symptoms we're still pretty acute with this, chances are
03:55 - 03:59just sitting here is going to be a little rough. Alright and then all I am going to
03:59 - 04:02have you do, hey do me a favor Yvette can you just put your hand on top of your
04:02 - 04:07head, so I'm unweighting some of the nerves, unstretching stretching some of the
04:07 - 04:12nerves from brachial plexus on down; and if she goes hey does that help at all,
04:12 - 04:18and that helps her symptoms, and be careful with the question
04:18 - 04:22you ask, the symptoms you were talking about when you walked in. So
04:22 - 04:26this is the right-sided neck pain, is that better? Yeah it is, yeah and then the
04:26 - 04:30nerve stuff is a little bit? Yeah, right so that's that's a positive. If her
04:30 - 04:33symptoms go down that's a positive. If you have any
04:33 - 04:38questions about this test, this very easy test, please leave me a comment in the in
04:38 - 04:43the box below, and I'll talk with you again soon

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