Component of evaluation	Evaluation area	Diagnoses to consider
Inspection	Carrying angle in full extension (men: 5 degrees, women: 15 degrees); compare with contralateral side	Decreased angle suggests supracondylar fracture; increased angle suggests lateral epicondylar fracture; consider possible ulnar nerve injury
	Diffuse elbow joint swelling; joint held in flexion	Interarticular joint pathology
	Swelling over olecranon	Olecranon bursitis
Palpation	Biceps muscle and tendon tenderness or deformity	Ruptured distal biceps muscle or tendon
	Cubital fossa tenderness or swelling	Joint capsule strain or hyperextension injury; look for median and musculocutaneous nerve injury
	Epicondyles or distal humerus	Fracture
	Radial head	Fracture or dislocation; consider radial nerve injury
	Ulnar nerve in sulcus: tender or thickened area over nerve	Ulnar nerve injury or entrapment
	Wrist extensor tenderness	Radial tunnel syndrome or lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow)
	Wrist flexor or pronator muscle group tenderness	Pronator syndrome or golfer's elbow
Range of motion*	Flexion 135 degrees; extension 0 to 5 degrees; supination 90 degrees; pronation 90 degrees	If active range of motion is normal, no need to test passive range of motion; if active range of motion is abnormal and passive range of motion is normal, consider muscle or nerve injury; abnormal passive range of motion indicates joint pathology
Muscle strength	Extension	Triceps muscle, radial nerve
	Flexion	Brachioradialis muscle, musculocutaneous nerve
	Pronation	Pronators, acute nerve irritation of branch median nerve
	Supination	Biceps muscle, musculocutaneous nerve
Sensory/neurologic	Biceps DTR	Musculocutaneous nerve C5
	Brachioradialis DTR	Radial nerve C6
	Triceps DTR	Radial nerve C7