The Importance of a Complete Exam

When examining a patient, sometimes it is tempting to keep your assessment to the nearby joints of the suspected pathology. This can often lead to missing a source of dysfunction. The Gait Guys had an interesting post recently about a 4:17 miler looking to increase his speed. The examiner found a limb length discrepancy that was being compensated by having the shorter limb's inominate rotated anteriorly, supinating the foot, and plantarflexing the 1st metatarsal. All of these compensations can lead to either pain or abnormal muscle alignment, which decreases efficiency and slows the runner. By addressing the source, followed by the resulting impairments, the runner can become more effective with each stride. Very cool case!

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