Bent Knee Stretch Test | Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy

The clinical assessment of chronic proximal hamstring tendinopathy in athletes is a challenge to sports medicine.
Cacchio et al. (2012) evaluated the reliability and validity of the Bent-knee stretch test to diagnose proximal hamstring tendinopathy in athletes with the presence of symptoms for at least 6 months. They compared their findings to the clinical diagnosis of an expert physician confirmed by means of MRI and found both a high intra- and inter-rater reliability above 0.8 and good accuracy with a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 87%.

Although this test has good accuracy values, the fact that this is the first and only study evaluating this test makes us give it a moderate clinical value in practice for now until more research can confirm its high accuracy.

To perform the test, the patient is in supine position. The examiner maximally flexes the patient’s hip and knee. Then the examiner slowly straightens the patient’s knee.

This test is rated positive if the patient’s familiar symptoms are exacerbated. Alright, this was our video about the Bent-Knee Stretch test for proximal hamstring tendinopathy.

21 OF THE MOST USEFUL ORTHOPAEDIC TESTS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE

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Other  orthopedic tests that assess for proximal hamstring tendinopathy are:

• Sign of the Buttock
• Modified Bent Knee Stretch Test
• Puranen-Orava Test

Cacchio, A., Borra, F., Severini, G., Foglia, A., Musarra, F., Taddio, N., & De Paulis, F. (2012). Reliability and validity of three pain provocation tests used for the diagnosis of chronic proximal hamstring tendinopathy. British journal of sports medicine, 46(12), 883-887.