Hip special tests are most useful when chosen to confirm or refute a hypothesis from the history - groin pain with deep flexion points to femoroacetabular impingement or the labrum, lateral pain to gluteal tendinopathy, and stiffness with loss of internal rotation to osteoarthritis. This guide groups the tests that change management, with how to perform each one and how to interpret a positive or negative result.
Sensitive screens for intra-articular and labral pathology - most useful for ruling out when negative.
FADIR (flexion, adduction, internal rotation) screens for femoroacetabular impingement and labral pathology. Reproduction of deep anterior groin pain is a positive result. It is sensitive but not specific, so it is most useful for ruling impingement out when negative.
FADIR provokes anterior impingement through flexion, adduction and internal rotation. FABER (Patrick's test) uses the figure-four position; anterior pain suggests a hip source while posterior pain points to the sacroiliac joint.
When standing on one leg, a drop of the opposite side of the pelvis indicates weakness or inhibition of the stance-leg hip abductors (gluteus medius), commonly seen with gluteal tendinopathy or hip pathology.