Here, I’m looking at a general assessment of a patient’s shoulder to gauge pain and laxity.
It’s a very generalized way for me to note the amount of humeral head translation and joint irritability in someone with shoulder pain.
I like to do an anterior drawer that looks at joint play followed by a fulcrum maneuver.
With the humerus in neutral and at 90 degrees of abduction, I’m getting a general sense of their shoulder mobility and biasing the inferior band of the capsule.
With the shoulder in external rotation, I’m biasing the anterior band of the inferior glenohumeral ligament complex.
Overall, I’m looking for the amount of humeral head translation and if there’s any corresponding pain associated with the motions.
I’ll take this information and try to use my subjective history and other movements to determine a diagnosis and prognosis for the patient.
The evaluation is multi-factorial for sure. I need numerous pieces of information to determine a plan of care that makes sense for the patient.
Try this test on your patients and see what you feel.
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a1DbLpG3gYA/maxresdefault.jpg)