How to Measure Range of Motion of Elbow Supination

Elbow supination is when your palm is up and the two bones of the forearm (radius and ulna) lie side by side. You supinate your elbow by using the proximal (elbow) and distal (wrist) radioulnar joints. Supination is important for holding, carrying, handing items to someone, placing items down, and swinging a racquet. Range of motion (ROM) refers to the direction and extent of joint movement and is measured in degrees. To measure elbow range of motion accurately, be sure the shoulder is not involved.

Instructions

• 1

  Position the arm, elbow, and hand for supination testing. The subject's elbow must be touching the side of his body and the forearm is out at a 90-degree angle from the elbow with thumb up (palm is not up or down but facing in). You do not want the arm straight down with fingers toward the floor or the shoulder joint will help to supinate. This will provide a false range-of-motion rating.

• 2

  Use a goniometer (ROM tool with axis and two arms) to measure active supination on your subject. Place the axis of the tool over the wrist joint. One arm of the tool is pointing up along the thumb. The other arm is laying on the forearm. Then, as the subject actively rotates his thumb out with palm facing up, the degree of supination is read on the goniometer and recorded.

• 3

  Continue to use the goniometer to measure passive supination. After the person has actively rotated his thumb out as far as possible, use slight force on the hand to continue to supinate the arm. Then read the degree of supination on the tool and record it. This gives you a separate passive elbow supination measure.

• 4

  Measure active and passive elbow supination several times. Know that this is a difficult measurement to calculate accurately with a goniometer, so you may want to repeat the measurements and take an average. You may also want to complete the measurements for the other arm.