The Elbow

Palpation

• The patient is seated. His elbow is placed in a 90° flexion position and in full supination.
• The examiner sits next to the patient, holds down the patient's elbow with is contralateral hand and palpates the epicondyle with the thumb.
• Down through the lateral epicondyle the sharp margo lateralis of the humerus is quite easily felt.
  (The extensor carpi radialis longus takes its origin at the front of the margo and is not to be palpated from lateral)
• When the thumb is turned over 90° and pushed in a dorsal direction against the front of the margin, a tendinous structure can be felt.
• Always compare the tenderness with that of the contralateral side