Physical examination

Physical exam of child with stethoscope on chest

A physical examination is the process by which physicians and other healthcare workers, examine the patient by systematically conducting various maneuvers such as inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation and perform various other tests to elicit symptoms and or signs.

On a SOAP note, a physical examination is usually preceded by a clinical history and goes under the objective part (SOAP stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan)

Systems

A basic physical examination consists of vital signs

• Height: ( ) inches
• Weight: ( ) pounds BMI: ( ) BMI-for-Age Percentile: ( ) %
• Pulse: ( )
• Blood Pressure: ( / )
• Temperature:

A doctor examining a patient

Systemic physical examination

• Hair/Scalp
• Skin
• Eyes/Vision Corrected vision
• Ears/Hearing
• Nose and Throat
• Teeth and Gingiva
• Lymph nodes
• Heart
• Lungs
• Abdomen
• Genitourinary
• Neuromuscular System
• Extremities
• Spine (Scoliosis, Kyphosis)
• Other

Clinical signs

• Abdominojugular test

• Adams Forward Bend Test

• Ankle–brachial pressure index

• Arm recoil

• Caloric reflex test

• Castell's sign

• Coin test

• Cozen's test

• Abdominal examination

• Auscultation

• Cardiac examination

• Cardiovascular examination

• Cranial nerve examination

• Eye examination

• Durkan's test

• Fluid wave test

• Hearing test

• Hess test

• Hirschberg test

• Hoover's sign (pulmonary)

• Jugular venous pressure

• Lancaster red-green test

• Liver scratch test

• Nixon's sign

• Orthostatic vital signs

• Palpation

• Percussion

• Perthes test

• Queckenstedt's maneuver

• Retinal birefringence scanning

• Romberg's test

• Sitting-rising test

• Spurling's test

• Stereopsis test

• Subjective refraction

• Tilt table test

• Timed Up and Go test

• Toe pressure

• Tourniquet test

• Traube's space

• Trendelenburg test

• Virginity test

• Vital signs

• Wrinkle test

• Yeoman's test

See also

• Rectal examination

• Peripheral vascular examination

• Neurological examination

• Nursing assessment

• Respiratory examination

• Sports physical examination