Assessing The SIJ

Take a look at our Instagram post where Tom takes us through the Stork Test, a tool to assess the SIJ, which can play a large role in contributing to lower back pain.

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85% of the western population will suffer low back pain at some point in their life. 18-30% of cases of persistent low back pain have the SIJ as a pain generator. . . The Stork Test is one of a number of tests to assess the sacroiliac joint (SIJ), the articulation between the spine and the innominates bones. It has two phases; the hip flexion phase and the stance phase. The hip flexion phase assesses joint mobility, whereas the stance phase assesses the ability to maintain the closed-pack joint position in weight bearing. . . Let's say we are assessing the right Stork Test, the patient faces away and the therapist placing one thumb on the right PSIS and then placing the other thumb on the spine level with the PSIS, usually S2. . . The right hip flexion phase is performed by asking the patient to stand on the left leg and flex the right hip and knee. The right PSIS should move inferiority and the innominate rotates posteriorly. A positive test is if there is no relative motion between the PSIS and S2 or if superior motion. . . The right Stork Test support phase is performed by asking the patient to stand on the right leg and flex the left hip and knee. The therapist continues to palmate the relative motion between the right PSIS and S2. There should be no palpable movement or slight inferior motion of the right PSIS. A positive test is if the right PSIS rotates anteriorly.

A post shared by Get Active Physiotherapy (@getactivephysiotherapy) on Jun 26, 2017 at 10:24pm PDT

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