Knee
Posterior drawer test
Posterior drawer
- What you examine
- Integrity of the posterior cruciate ligament.
- Procedure
- Supine, hip at 45 and knee at 90 degrees, foot flat on the couch and fixed. Grasp the tibial plateau with both hands and push the tibia posteriorly.
- Positive when
- More posterior translation than on the other side, with a soft or absent end feel.
- What the test is worth
- Sensitivity around 0.90 and specificity around 0.99: the most reliable of the knee ligament tests. A negative test makes a PCL injury unlikely.
- Caution
- First look at the starting position from the side: if the tibia has already dropped back, the anterior drawer seems positive while the ACL is intact. That is the classic pitfall.
- Joint
- Knee joint
- Body region
- Knee