Passive Compression Test

Execution:

1. The patient is in side-lying position on the unaffected side with the examiner standing behind the patient
2. The examiner fixates the patient’s shoulder at the AC joint with one hand, while the other hand controls the patient’s elbow
3. The patient’s affected shoulder is brought into external rotatation and 30° of abduction
4. Then, the examiner pushes the arm proximally and passively extends the patient’s shoulder thereby displacing the unstable labrum cranially

 

Positive Outcome: Pain or a painful clicking is elicited in the glenohumeral joint 

Study	Reliability	Sn	Sp	LR+	LR-
Kim et al. (2007)	NA	81.8	85.7	5.72	0.21
Comment: The Passive Compression Test has a good accuracy to confirm and to exclude a SLAP tear. However, the test has not been validated by other studies yet.