Clinical Reproducibility and Reliability of Lever Sign (Lelli’s) Test for Acute ACL Tear Performed by Medical Students

Abstract

Background Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in sports are frequent in children and young adults participating in sporting activities involving rotational and pivoting movements. Magnetic resonance imaging is the most accurate diagnostic tool to detect an ACL tear. There are, however, a number of specialized tests available to assess ACL competency. Hypothesis A novel test was described with extremely high clinical accuracy. The purpose of this study was to assess its clinical accuracy when performed by non-orthopedic providers, such as medical students. Methods A cross-sectional study design was adopted, and two patients with an MRI-proven complete ACL tear were selected. One patient was thin, and the other was overweight, and both were examined by 100 medical students for both the injured and uninjured knee. The results for these exams were recorded, and a statistical analysis of the screening test was done to evaluate the new special test. Results Our results were different from the ones found in the literature: we found the test to have a significantly lower performance in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios compared to the literature numbers. Conclusion The Lever sign (Lelli’s) test loses clinical credibility and significance when performed by non-orthopedic providers or doctors, such as medical students in our study.