“Pain on palpation is NOT a finding”…

In this clip taken from a Functional Anatomic Palpation Systems (F.A.P.)™ ‘Upper Limb’ seminar in Toronto, Dr. Spina discusses why “pain on palpation” is not necessarily a useful clinical finding.

As is mentioned, the human body has areas that are sensitive to palpation common to everybody and thus pain on palpation found in these areas are not useful as clinical findings unless they are reproducing the pain complaint.  Also mentioned is the fact that palpating tissues in a static position will also tell you very little about the patients condition.  Soft tissue injury results in a decreased capacity for tissues to slide past one another due to fascial cross-linking and fibrosis leading to biomechanical dysfunction and compensation patterns.  Thus movement must be utilized in association with palpation in order to assess how the injury is affecting tissues.

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