Sign of the Buttock Test

Other Names

The sign of the buttock: passive hip flexion with bent knee (B) is more limited and/or painful than straight leg raising (A).

• Sign of the Buttock Test
• Sign of the Buttock
• Buttock Sign

---

Purpose

• To help elucidate the cause of the patients lower back, hip and gluteal pain
• To consider non-musculoskeletal cause of the patients symptoms

---

Description

Test Description

• The patient is supine on the examination table
• A straight leg raise test is passively performed by the examiner
• Return the leg to neutral
• Passively flex the patients hip with the knee flexed to end range
• Evaluate for further hip flexion

Interpretation

• Painful straight leg raise
  • Suggests hamstrings, sciatic nerve, buttock or hip pathology
• Hip flexion with knee flexed
  • Hamstrings and sciative nerve pain should improve
  • Suggests pathology of the hip or buttocks
• Presence of an "empty end feel"
  • May suggest more serious pathology (osteomyelitits, septic arthritis, bursitis, abscess, malignancy, fracture)

---

Pathology

• Extensive

---

Evidence

• Unknown

---

See Also

• Back Pain Main
• Physical Exam Back
• Back Anatomy Main

---