Describe the Straight Leg Raise test and what a positive result indicates.

• A. With the patient supine, raise the affected leg with knee extended until pain reproduces or limits are reached; reproduction of concordant radicular pain indicates nerve root tension, commonly L5-S1.
• B. Patient seated, rotate trunk to test for radiculopathy.
• C. With patient prone, push on sacroiliac joint to elicit pain.
• D. Test involves lifting both legs while flexing knees to diagnose hamstring tightness.

Answer: (A)

The test evaluates tension on the lumbosacral nerve roots to detect radiculopathy, most often from a disc herniation around the L5–S1 level. Lying on the back, the clinician raises the straight leg with the knee extended until pain appears or motion limits. If the pain that appears is concordant radicular pain—radiating down the leg in the sciatic distribution and matching the patient’s typical symptoms—the result is positive, indicating nerve root irritation or tension. This helps distinguish nerve-related pain from purely muscular tightness. If the pain stays in the back or is merely hamstring-related (not radiating down the leg), the test isn’t considered positive for radiculopathy. The other described maneuvers test different things—seated trunk rotation isn’t the straight leg raise, sacroiliac joint pressure tests the SI joint, and lifting both legs with knees bent targets hamstring length rather than nerve root tension.