Copynght 979 by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Incorporated

ABSTRACT: With a clinical goniometer, we mea sured the arcs of active motion of the shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist, hip, knee, ankle, and foot in 109 nor mal male subjects ranging in age from eighteen months to fifty-four years old. The normal limits were deter mined for subjects who were one to nineteen years old and for those who were twenty to fifty-four years old. Significant differences were found between the two age groups for most motions. The data were compared with estimations in the handbook of The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons as the standard reference. The data constitute a more detailed set of mea surements, based on a sample described according to height and age, than has been available hitherto. Measurements of the motion of joints are an accepted clinical technique for evaluating disability; but data based on normal values are sparse. The best-known source for average ranges of joint motion is the handbook of The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons3, which contains estimates of joint motion obtained from three referenced sources @. Those sources do not describe either the population surveyed or the methods by which the measurements were obtained. The manuals that are used for instruction in measurement techniques and recording methods usually contain arbitrary sets of normal limits@ Furthermore, although general observation indicates that the amplitudes of motion of the joints differ in children and adults, little information exists about the influence of aging on the ranges o