Musculoskeletal Review Flashcards
What connects bone to bone?
Ligaments
What connects muscle to bone?
Tendons
What is affected with a sprain?
Joints
What is affected with a strain?
Muscles
What is the 3-4 rule?
3-4 tabs of ibuprofen, 3-4 times per day for 3-4 days
Ibuprofen - 400-800 mg TID-QID
naproxen 250-500 mg QD in divided doses
According to the WHO Bone Density Criteria, what score is diagnostic of osteoporosis?
T score 2.5 standard deviations from the mean for young adult white women)
According to the WHO Bone Density Criteria, what score is diagnostic of osteopenia?
T score -2.5 to 1.5 (1 to 2.5 SDs below the mean for young adult white women)
How do you best measure bone density?
A DEXA (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) scan. Also used to diagnose osteoporosis and guiding treatment decisions.
Where does the median nerve innervate?
To the palm and palmar surface of most of the middle finger, index finger, and thumb, and half of the fourth/ring finger digit. It innervates the thumb to flex, abduct, and opposition.
What are the two primary tests to evaluate for carpal tunnel and how are they performed?
What is the treatment?
-Tinel’s sign and Phalen’s sign.
-Treatment: a “cock up” splint to prevent dorsiflexion and
flexion.
What is the McMurray test?
How do you perform it and what are positive findings?
-Tests for medial meniscal injury
-An audible/palpable click when the knee is raised slowly
with one foot externally rotated (knee is flexed and then
quickly straightened), NP’s hand rests on the joint line
What is the Lachman’s test?
How do you perform it and what are positive findings?
-Drawer test to assess for ACL/PCL tear
-Most sensitive and easy to perform test on a swollen,
painful knee
-+Anterior drawer suggests ACL tear
-+Posterior drawer suggests PCL tear
How are ankle sprains classified?
Stretched, partially torn, or completely torn ligaments
Grade 1 - mild, localized tenderness, with normal ROM
and no disability
Grade 2 - moderate to severe pain with weight bearing;
difficulty walking, swelling, ecchymosis; pain
immediately after injury
Grade 3 - impossible to ambulate; resists any motion of
feet; “egg-shaped” swelling within 2 hours of injury
What is bursitis?
How is it treated?
-Inflammation of the bursa
-Caused by trauma, sepsis/infection
-Most common locations:
oleecranon
subdeltoid
ischial
prepatellar
-S/S - pain, swelling, tenderness, erythema
-Aspirate with C&S, WBD, plain x-rays
-Splinting, RICE, heat, aspirin or NSAIDs, steroids (max 3 per year)
What are some defining characteristics of Osteoarthritis?
-It is a degenerative joint disease with slow destruction of
the articular cartilage
-Asymmetrical
-Gets worse throughout the day
-Mostly affects knees, hips, DIPs (Herbeden’s nodes), and
PIPs (Bourchard’s nodes), wrists
-Swelling and edema, NO REDNESS OR HEAT
-Better in the AM, worse as the day goes on
-X-Rays reveal joint space narrowing, osteophytes
-Aspirated synovial fluid is normal, yellow/clear
What are some defining characteristics of Rheumatoid Arthritis?
-Most common in younger females
-Autoimmune inflammation of connective tissue
-Symmetrical
-Worse in the morning, better throughout the day
-Mostly affects PIPs, MCPs/wrists
-Swelling and edema with redness and heat
-Elevated ESR, ANA+ in 1/5 patients
-Aspirated synovial fluid with inflammatory changes and
WBCs
-X-ray reveals progressive cortical thinning, osteopenia,
joint space narrowing, joint swelling
-DMARDS - Must check LFTs
What is the straight leg raisetest?
How do you perform it and what are positive findings?
- have patient lay supine and raise leg off table.
- Radiating or sciatic pain reproduced is a positive finding.
What is the pelvic rock test?
How do you perform it and what are positive findings?
Screens for sacroiliac joint dysfunction.
-with patient laying supine, place hands on each of the
anterior superior iliac spines and attempt to “open and
close” the pelvis.
-The test is positive if the patient feels pain in either or
both sacroiliac joints.
Your patient comes in complaining of lower back pain that radiates to the medial maleolus and he also reports numbness behind his knee. On exam you find diminished patellar reflexes. What is the next test you perform and why?
- You have the patient squat and rise to assess quadriceps muscle strength.
- You are confirming L3-L4 disk pathology.
Your patient comes to see you for pain that radiates to lateral calf and causes numbness on the bottom of her foot. What test do you do in your exam room and why?
- You have the patient walk on her heels to assess her ability to dorsiflex her foot and great toe. This should also elicit pain in her calf.
- You suspect L4-L5 disk pathology.