Execution:
- The patient is in sitting position with his elbow resting on the treatment table and facing the examiner
- The examiner then fixates the patient’s radius with one hand and gives pressure into dorsal direction on the palmar prominence of the scaphoid with his thumb
- With the other hand, the examiner grasps the patient’s metacarpals from the ulnar side to control the wrist
- The examiner brings the wrist from maximal ulnar deviation and slight extension into maximal radial deviation and slight flexion and releases the pressure of his thumb on the scaphoid
Positive Outcome: The scaphoid shifts back ventrally upon the release of the thumb and produces a painful “thunk” sound
| Study |
Reliability |
Sn | Sp | LR+ |
LR- |
| Vales et al. (2013) |
NA |
NA | NA | 2.76 |
0.25 |
| Comment: The Watson or Scaphoid Shift Test seems to be a moderate test to rule out scapholunate instability, while it only has weak clinical value to confirm an SL instability. | |||||
