It was our intent to devise a new clinical test that would more accurately diagnose subscapularis tears than the current clinical tests. This new test is called the bear-hug test. The purpose of this study was to assess the bear-hug test and compare it with the current tests of subscapularis function (lift-off, belly-press, and Napoleon tests).
The bear-hug test optimizes the chance of detecting a tear of the upper part of the subscapularis tendon. Moreover, because the bear-hug test represents the most sensitive test, it can be considered to be the most likely clinical test to alert the surgeon to a possible subscapularis tear. Performing all of the subscapularis tests is useful in predicting the size of the tear.
Level of evidence: Level I, diagnostic study: testing of previously developed criteria in a series of consecutive patients with arthroscopy used as the criterion standard. Copyright remains with the authors and publisher.
It was our intent to devise a new clinical test that would more accurately diagnose subscapularis tears than the current clinical tests. This new test is called the bear-hug test. The purpose of this study was to assess the bear-hug test and compare it with the current tests of subscapularis function (lift-off, belly-press, and Napoleon tests).
The bear-hug test optimizes the chance of detecting a tear of the upper part of the subscapularis tendon. Moreover, because the bear-hug test represents the most sensitive test, it can be considered to be the most likely clinical test to alert the surgeon to a possible subscapularis tear. Performing all of the subscapularis tests is useful in predicting the size of the tear.
Level of evidence: Level I, diagnostic study: testing of previously developed criteria in a series of consecutive patients with arthroscopy used as the criterion standard. Copyright remains with the authors and publisher.