Brudzinski’s Sign
Original Editor Oyemi Sillo
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Description[edit | edit source]
Brudzinski's sign is one of the physically demonstrable symptoms of meningitis. Severe neck stiffness causes a patient's hips and knees to flex when the neck is flexed.[1]
Purpose[edit | edit source]
Indicates meningeal irritation.[2]
[edit | edit source]
Technique
To elicit the Kernig's sign, patient is kept in supine position, hip and knee are flexed to a right angle, and then knee is slowly extended by the examiner. The appearance of resistance or pain during extension of the patient's knees beyond 135 degrees constitutes a positive Kernig's sign
• Patient lies supine
• Flex neck, bringing chin to chest
• Positive sign is involuntary flexing of hips.
Evidence[3][edit | edit source]
Sensitivity: 5; Specificity: 95; Positive likelihood ratio: 0.97; Negative likelihood ratio: 1.0
See test diagnostics page for explanation of statistics.
Recent Related Research (from Pubmed)[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/19069.htm
- ↑ Introduction to Emergency Medicine edited by Elizabeth Mitchell, Ron Medzon. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005
- ↑ Karen E. Thomas, Rodrigo Hasbun, James Jekel, Vincent J. Quagliarello. The Diagnostic Accuracy of Kernig's Sign, Brudzinski's Sign, and Nuchal Rigidity in Adults with Suspected Meningitis. Clin Infect Dis. (2002) 35 (1): 46-52.
- ↑ Manmohan Mehndiratta, Rajeev Nayak, Hitesh Garg, Munish Kumar, and Sanjay Pandey (2012). Appraisal of Kernig's and Brudzinski's sign in meningitis.Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2012 Oct-Dec; 15(4): 287–288. doi: 10.4103/0972-2327.104337
