The clinician flexes and adducts the hip until resistance to the movement is detected or patient's pelvis begins to lift on the bed (this assesses the inner quadrant). The clinician then maintains flexion into resistance and moves the hip into abduction (this assesses the outer quadrant) and then takes the hip through two full arcs of motion. If the patient reports no pain, the clinician repeats the test while applying long-axis compression through the femur.
Abnormal findings are pain or resistance felt anywhere during the arc. Resistance may be caused by capsular tightness, adhesions, myofascial restriction, or a loss of joint congruity.
Relevant Research
The sensitivity of the Hip Scour Test is 75-79%. Its specificity is 43-50%: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12897984, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11819128
The reliability of the Hip Scour Test is high as 0.87. 20 out of 21 (95%) subjects had pain with the Hip Scour test before two minutes of hip mobilization, while only 10 (48%) reported pain after mobilization: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15609488
