McKenzie Side Glide Test:

• This McKenzie Side Glide Test Method of Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy means MDT which is a system of classification-based system.
• This McKenzie Side Glide Test is designed to classify the patients into homogeneous subgroups of the direct treatment.
• Fung, Long & Donelson which is showed that the assessment of the McKenzie identifies the large subgroup muscle of the acute, subacute & chronic low back which is patients with the directional preference an immediate & lasting improvement in the pain from performing the either repeated of the lumbar flexion/extension & side glides or rotation tests.
• This McKenzie side glide test is a provocation test that is for patients with back pain & more specific with low back pain.

What is the Purpose of the McKenzie Side Glide Test?

• The purpose of the McKenzie Side Glide Test is used to check the joint dysfunction of the back.

How do you perform the McKenzie Side Glide Test?

• The starting position of the test is the standing position of the test.
• The patient stands for the test with the examiner [ therapist ] standing to one side.
• The examiner [ therapist ] grasps the patient’s pelvis with the help of both hands & places a shoulder joint against the patient’s lower thorax.
• Using the shoulder as a block, the examiner [ therapist ] pulls the pelvis towards the examiner’s body.
• The position is held for 10 to 15 seconds, & then the test is repeated on the opposite side.
• If the patient has evident scoliosis, the side to which the scoliosis curves should be tested first.

What is the result of the McKenzie Side Glide Test?

• A positive test is indicated by increased neurological symptoms on the affected side.
• It also indicates whether the symptoms are causing scoliosis.

What is Evidence of the McKenzie Side Glide Test?

• According to McKenzie Side Glide Test, the shift is considered to be clinically relevant when a side glide test which is applied in the frontal-plane ROM test of the trunk alters the location/intensity of the pain which is reported by the patient. McKenzie is also recommended the use of a two-step procedure to determine when the clinically relevant lateral shifts are present.
• The first step of the McKenzie Side Glide Test requires the examiner [ therapist ] to observe the patient’s standing posture to determine whether a lateral shift is present.
• The second step of the McKenzie Side Glide Test requires the examiner [ therapist ] to test for the clinical relevance of the lateral shift by using the side-glide tests to determine whether the site or the intensity of the pain which is reported by the patient is altered position.

Author: Vaishali Ladva