Anterior Hip Point

Early ailments of the hip joint have a varied presentation. Pain is felt around the hip due to many ailments pertaining to the spinal column, spinal cord or sacroiliac joint, or due to intra-abdominal and intra-pelvic causes. There is no test mentioned in the literature[1-5] that is specific for diagnosing the ailment of the hip joint clinically in the early stages of the disease and in children. We conducted a prospective study from November 2004 to December 2012, in which 850 hips were examined and followed up for 1 year. In this method, the patient is made to lie in supine position on the examination table and the examiner stands on the affected side of the hip joint. An imaginary line is drawn from the anterior superior iliac spine, bisecting the middle of the patella. This line is transected at 90O, four fingerbreadths (of the patient) distal to the anterior superior iliac spine. Tenderness at this point indicates positivity. The test was positive in 250 patients and negative in 600 patients. Out of the 250 positive cases, 240 were finally confirmed to be suffering from an ailment in the follow-up period. Out of the 600 patients who were initially negative for the test, 10 developed an ailment in the follow-up period. This gave the test a sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 98%, making it highly sensitive and specific.