The drop arm test is used to determine rotator cuff tears or a supraspinatus tear in particular. The test can yield both false positives & false negatives, so use it in combination with other diagnostic tools.
Bring the patient’s arm out to 90 degrees of abduction. Then let go of their arm and ask them to slowly lower their arm. A positive test is either pain when lowering the arm, or the arm suddenly dropping because they can’t control it back down.
This can also be a sign of other shoulder issues including shoulder tendonitis and shoulder bursitis.
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