Craig’s test assessment form

Key takeaways

Craig’s test measures femoral anteversion by finding the angle of hip internal rotation with the patient prone.

Normal femoral anteversion in adults sits between 8 and 15 degrees. Values outside that range may point to biomechanical dysfunction.

Two examiners rarely agree on the same hip, so record who measured and compare left with right.

Read the number as a clinical estimate. It does not replace CT or MRI when you need a structural diagnosis.

Practice management software like Pabau keeps each measurement, interpretation, and follow-up plan in one structured client record.

Craig’s test measures femoral anteversion, the inward twist of the femur. Also called the trochanteric prominence angle test, it needs only a treatment table and a goniometer. Adults normally measure between 8 and 15 degrees.

Physical therapists, sports medicine clinicians, and orthopedic teams use it to screen in-toeing gait, hip pain, and knee mechanics. Agreement between two examiners is poor with the standard technique, so how you record the result matters as much as the number itself.

What is Craig’s test?

Femoral anteversion is the forward twist of the femoral neck relative to the knee. Everyone has some. It becomes clinically interesting when it sits well outside the normal range and matches the patient’s complaint.

The test estimates that twist without imaging. You palpate the greater trochanter, rotate the hip internally, and read the angle off the lower leg with a goniometer. It costs nothing beyond two minutes of table time, which is why it stays in the standard hip screen.

When to assess femoral anteversion

Reach for it in these presentations:

• In-toeing gait: Patients whose feet point inward when they walk. The test helps separate femoral from tibial contributions.
• Hip pain or dysfunction: Anterior hip pain, restricted rotation, or symptoms of femoroacetabular impingement, known as FAI.
• Knee pain with a mechanical cause: Patellofemoral pain, or a suspected coupling problem between hip and knee.
• Pediatric gait assessment: Children with toe-walking or asymmetrical gait. Check age-specific normal values before you interpret anything.
• Post-injury rehabilitation: Athletes returning from hip, knee, or ankle injury, where you need a baseline to track against.
• Sports medicine screening: Runners, dancers, and throwing athletes whose training loads the hip in one repeated pattern.

For a fuller picture, combine it with the rest of your physical therapy assessment tools and capture the numbers on standardized digital forms.

How to perform Craig’s test step by step

Follow the same sequence every time. Consistency is what makes repeat measurements comparable.

1. Position the patient: Prone on the table with both legs extended. This position limits pelvic rotation and settles the lumbar spine.
2. Flex the knee: Passively flex the knee to 90 degrees. That right angle puts the lower leg perpendicular to the thigh, giving you a reference axis for the goniometer.
3. Palpate the greater trochanter: Find the bony prominence on the lateral hip. Rest your fingers firmly on it, because this is the landmark you track through the movement.
4. Rotate the hip internally: Move the foot outward slowly and passively. Stop when the greater trochanter reaches its most lateral position, which marks maximum internal rotation.
5. Measure the angle: Set the goniometer axis at the knee joint. Align one arm vertically and the other along the lower leg, then record the reading in degrees.

Technique tip: Move slowly and pause at end range so the soft tissue can relax. Abrupt movement triggers guarding and gives you a false reading. Keep your hand placement and goniometer alignment identical on the second side.

Normal values and how to interpret them

Use this table to read your measurement and flag anything that needs a closer look:

One caveat: The result is a clinical estimate, not a measurement of bone. Always read it alongside the patient’s history, movement pattern, and pain provocation tests. Order imaging when a structural diagnosis will change the plan.

Reliability and validity: What the evidence shows

Craig’s test repeats well for one clinician and travels badly between two. That single fact should shape how much weight you give any number you inherit.

Intra-examiner reliability is good. A reliability study of healthy adults reported intraclass correlation coefficients, or ICC, of 0.72 to 0.86 for the same examiner repeating the test. Your own follow-up measurements are therefore worth comparing.

Inter-examiner reliability is the weak point. Across methods, the same study found ICC values from 0.25 to 0.62. The standard goniometer technique described above scored 0.25, which counts as poor agreement.

That has a practical consequence. Treat a single absolute number with caution when a colleague took the baseline. Compare the patient’s left side with the right, flag asymmetry above 5 degrees, and note who performed the test.

Validity against imaging is contested. A 2019 validity study of healthy adults found weak agreement with CT. Anteversion measured on CT and the patient’s sex together explained only 23% of the variation in Craig’s test values.

Earlier surgical work was more favorable, reporting clinical estimates within roughly 4 degrees of the angle measured at operation. Either way, use the test to screen, and use CT or MRI when you need a structural diagnosis.

None of this makes the test useless. It is free, quick, and repeatable, which keeps it in the screening battery for sports medicine and physical therapy.

Related hip special tests to run alongside

Craig’s test rarely stands alone. These assessments fill in what an anteversion angle cannot tell you:

• Ober test: Assesses iliotibial band tightness, which matters when the pain sits on the lateral hip or knee.
• Thomas test: Checks hip flexor length and picks up anterior tightness that alters gait.
• Ely’s test: Screens rectus femoris tightness in prone, so it uses the same patient position as Craig’s test.
• Patrick’s test, or FABER: Screens for intra-articular hip pathology and sacroiliac joint involvement.
• Hip rotation range of motion: Measures how much rotation is available, which puts the anteversion angle in context.
• Gait analysis: Watches in-toeing, out-toeing, and stance-phase mechanics, the functional consequence of what you measured.

Ankle and calf findings feed the same picture, so a knee-to-wall test or a Thompson test often belongs in the same session.

A battery only helps if every result lands in the same clinical record.

What to document in the patient record

Record these five elements every time you run the test:

• Measurement in degrees: Right and left side angles, with any asymmetry above 5 degrees flagged.
• Interpretation: Normal range, increased anteversion, or retroversion.
• Patient response: Pain reproduction, guarding, or movement restriction during the test.
• Clinical correlation: Tie the number to the complaint, such as a 20-degree right measurement alongside in-toeing and anterior hip pain on stairs.
• Examiner and technique: Note who measured and any variation from your standard setup. Given how poorly the test travels between examiners, this line is what makes the next measurement comparable.

AI-assisted documentation can draft that note while you work, and automated workflows can trigger a referral when a reading crosses your threshold.

How Pabau supports hip assessment documentation

Most practices still capture Craig’s test in free text. The angle ends up buried in a paragraph, the examiner’s name never makes it in, and nobody can compare February’s reading with June’s.

Pabau replaces that with structured assessment forms. Each measurement has its own field, normal-range flags fire automatically, and the interpretation template travels with the reading. Your team fills in the same fields in the same order, whoever is on shift.

The result is a client record you can track over time. Pull a patient’s hip history in one view, see how the numbers moved, and show them the trend rather than describing it. Pabau Scribe handles the narrative note, so structured data costs you no extra typing.

Keep every hip measurement in one record

Pabau's digital assessment forms capture each Craig's test measurement, examiner, and interpretation in the client record. Your team records the same fields every time, so follow-up readings stay comparable.

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Conclusion

Craig’s test earns its place on speed and cost rather than precision. Read the number as a screen and weigh it against the patient in front of you. Reach for imaging when the plan depends on the answer.

The bigger win is discipline around the record. Name the examiner, record both sides, and use the same fields every visit. Poor inter-examiner agreement then shows up as something you can spot and manage. Download the assessment form above and give your team one way of doing it.

Book a demo to see how Pabau keeps hip measurements, examiners, and follow-up plans in one client record.

Continue your research

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Want tighter clinical notes? Safer clinical notes covers how to document special tests, findings, and reasoning without padding the record.

Structuring a first appointment? The initial consultation form gives you a starting point for history, screening, and consent.

Assessing the shoulder next? The Kim test template walks through positioning and scoring for posteroinferior labral tears.

Treating neck pain as well? Neck pain exercises gives you a progression you can hand to patients between visits.

Frequently asked questions