Sacral Thrust Test | Sacroiliac Joint Pain Provocation | SIJ assessment

The Sacral Thrust Test is a provocation test for the sacroiliac joint and is included in the Cluster of van der Wurff and the cluster of Laslett.

As reported by Laslett et al. (2005), the sacral thrust test has a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 75%, which gives it a weak clinical value and it’s advised to do this test in a cluster, which you can watch by a click in the top right corner.

To conduct the test, the patient will lie in prone position. You are going to stand next to the bench on the symptomatic side and place the base of your hand on spinous process s2 with the fingers pointing in cranial direction.

Then apply 3-6 vertically downwards-directed thrusts of high velocity with gradually increasing pressure.

A positive test will result in the reproduction of the patient’s familiar pain.

Other common orthopedic tests that aim to provoke the sacroiliac joint are:

• Distraction Test
• Sacroiliac Compression Test
• Gaenslen’s Test
• Thigh Thrust Test
• Cluster of Laslett
• Cluster of van der Wurff

Laslett M, Aprill CN, McDonald B, Young SB. Diagnosis of sacroiliac joint pain: validity of individual provocation tests and composites of tests. Manual therapy. 2005 Aug 1;10(3):207-18.