Transillumination of the sinuses? shifting dullness? the puddle sign?
In this episode, we poke fun and debunk our favourite “useless” physical exam manoeuvres that we continue to teach our medical students. We couldn’t cover all of them in one go, so stay tuned for more…
Try the app DxLogic on the iPhone to have a quick reference to the utility of many studied history features and physical exam manoeuvres.
Also, check out JAMA’s series of articles entitled “The Rational Clinical Exam“. Another great resource is Steven McGee’s book, “Evidence Based Physical Diagnosis“.
Finally, in reference to our previous episodes about Larry Weed and his Problem Knowledge Couplers, here’s the response from Larry and his son, Lincoln to some of the concerns we raised:
I listened to all your podcasts, and I liked them all. This is the first one that I need to comment. You’ve been talking about likelihood ratio and other statistical parameters which clinicians should use to further guide a diagnostic process, or mostly not to use because LR of some physical findings is not high or low enough to rule out or rule in some disease. I agree that this LRs are helpful an can tell more about the usefulness of physical examinations signs, but again we must be careful using this data. As you already know, there are a… Read more »