Knee
Joint line tenderness
Jointline tenderness
- What you examine
- Meniscal injury and its location.
- Procedure
- Knee flexed 45 to 90 degrees. Palpate the joint line medially and laterally over its whole course, from the patellar ligament to the collateral ligaments.
- Positive when
- Local tenderness on the joint line, compared left with right.
- What the test is worth
- Sensitivity around 0.80 but specificity only around 0.45: many other conditions also cause tenderness here. Only useful in a cluster with the other meniscal tests.
- Caution
- Do not confuse the joint line with the attachment of the medial collateral ligament, which lies just above it and is painful in a ligament injury.
- Joint
- Knee joint
- Body region
- Knee