FINKELSTEIN

TEST

​​• Test positioning

The client sits or stands and forms a fist around the thumb.

The therapist stands with the proximal hand grasping the client's forearm and the distal hand grasping the client's fist, with the client's thumb in the therapist's thenar eminence.

​• Action

While stabilizing the client's forearm with the proximal hand, ulnarly deviate the client's wrist with the distal hand.

​• Positive finding

Pain over the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis tendons distally is indicative of tenosynovitis in these tendons (de Quervain's disease).

​• Special considerations & comments

This test may create pain in uninvolved tissues.

The therapist may also find that simple passive ulnar deviation may be slightly uncomfortable for even those without pathology.

If de Quervain's disease is suspected, but pain is not found with ulnar deviation, the therapist can have the client radially deviate against resistance in an attempt to reproduce contractile-associated pain.