Examination of the Anterior Drawer and Talar Tilt Manual Stress Tests

In order to determine the severity of any injury a complete physical examination must be performed. An essential part of the examination is testing the mechanical instability of the ankle joint. An examiner will perform manual stress tests in order to test for the mechanical instability of a joint. The Anterior Drawer Test (ADT) and the Talar Tilt (TT) are two tests used at the ankle to determine mechanical instability. Upon review of previous research there is a paucity of studies that rate the reliability of the ADT and TT. Research has shown that manual stress tests at the knee and shoulder have low clinician reliability. The purpose of this study was to determine inter-clinician and intra-clinician consistency of initial ankle position during the anterior drawer (ADT) and talar tilt (TT) manual stress tests