Is digital photography an accurate and precise method for measuring range of motion of the shoulder and elbow?

• Published in: Journal of orthopaedic science : official journal of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association 2018-03, Vol.23 (2), p.310-315
• Main Authors: Russo, Russell R., Burn, Matthew B., Ismaily, Sabir K., Gerrie, Brayden J., Han, Shuyang, Alexander, Jerry, Lenherr, Christopher, Noble, Philip C., Harris, Joshua D., McCulloch, Patrick C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0949-2658; 1436-2023
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jos.2017.11.016

Accurate measurements of shoulder and elbow motion are required for the management of musculoskeletal pathology. The purpose of this investigation was to compare three techniques for measuring motion. The authors hypothesized that digital photography would be equivalent in accuracy and show higher precision compared to the other two techniques. Using infrared motion capture analysis as the reference standard, shoulder flexion/abduction/internal rotation/external rotation and elbow flexion/extension were measured using visual estimation, goniometry, and digital photography on 10 fresh frozen cadavers. These measurements were performed by three physical therapists and three orthopaedic surgeons. Accuracy was defined by the difference from the reference standard (motion capture analysis), while precision was defined by the proportion of measurements within the authors' definition of clinical significance (10° for all motions except for elbow extension where 5° was used). Analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-tests, and chi-squared tests were used. Although statistically significant differences were found in measurement accuracy between the three techniques, none of these differences met the authors' definition of clinical significance. Precision of the measurements was significantly higher for both digital photography (shoulder abduction [93% vs. 74%, p