FABER test

Video Description

Clinician places patient's heel of the leg to be tested over the opposite knee. The hip joint is passively externally rotated and abducted by placing pressure over the ipsilateral knee, while stabilizing the contralateral innominate. Assess for pain at the hip or SIJ. ROM measurement can be taken in reference to the horizontal plane of the table. A positive test indicates that the hip joint may be affected, there may be iliopsoas spasm, or the SI joint may be affected.

Relevant Research

The FABER Test was positive in 7 of 18 cases of labral tears, all of which were confirmed as true positives by MRA. The test was false negative in 10 cases and true negative in one case. Thus, the sensitivity was 41% and the specificity was 100%: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19...
The FABER Test was 82% sensitive for intra-articular hip pathology: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20...
The test was sensitive and specific for determining ROM loss with OA: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12...
The FABAR Test was responsive in detecting improvement in patients with hip pain: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/84...