Purpose of Hawkins-Kennedy Impingement Test: To determine if there is an impingement in the shoulder joint (1).
Patient position: Sitting upright with the affected arm relaxed by the side.
Examiner position: Standing beside the patient’s affected side.
Procedure: Elevate the affected arm to 90 degrees in forward flexion. Have the patient’s affected arm rest on your arm i.e., have the patient’s affected arm well supported so that the muscles are completely relaxed. And then, perform passive internal rotation of the affected arm, while maintaining the elbow at 90 degrees of flexion (1, 2). While Hawkins et al (1) performed a forcible forward flexion (jamming the greater tuberosity against the antero-inferior surface of the acromion) to reliably establish the diagnosis of impingement syndrome, a gentle internal rotation had been suggested to reproduce the pain of impingement (3, 4).
Outcome: A positive test is the provocation of pain, which may indicate a sub-acromial impingement (1, 2).
References:
- Hawkins R, Kennedy J. Impingement syndrome in athletes. The American journal of sports medicine. 1980;8(3):151-8.
- Çalış M, Akgün K, Birtane M, Karacan I, Çalış H, Tüzün F. Diagnostic values of clinical diagnostic tests in subacromial impingement syndrome. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 2000;59(1):44.
- Park HB, Yokota A, Gill HS, El Rassi G, McFarland EG. Diagnostic accuracy of clinical tests for the different degrees of subacromial impingement syndrome. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2005;87(7):1446-55.
- Hughes P. The Neer sign and Hawkins-Kennedy test for shoulder impingement. Journal of physiotherapy. 2011;57(4):260.