[Standardized examination of the elbow].

The elbow joint often reacts to different injury patterns of the intra- and extra-articular structures with uniform symptoms that can hardly be differentiated. Furthermore, several neural entrapment syndromes around the elbow should be taken into consideration, because they make the differential diagnosis even more difficult. Cervical nerve root and brachial plexus irritations can also be responsible for pain, which is subjectively transferred to the elbow. The purpose of the study was to improve the etiological differentiation by introducing a new standardized physical examination program. Besides the static and dynamic examination and specific stability tests, the symptoms of relevant neural compression syndromes are checked. This physical examination program represents a guideline for the systematic evaluation of the anatomical and morphological structures that are responsible for the individual symptoms.