"Knuckle Cracking": Can Blinded Observers Detect Changes with Physical Examination and Sonography?

CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence of immediate adverse physical examination findings after knuckle cracking. However, we did find a small increase in ROM among joints that cracked compared with those that did not. Future studies should examine if there are any long-term beneficial and adverse clinical outcomes associated with habitual knuckle cracking.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level I, prognostic study.
PMID: 28050816 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research - January 2, 2017 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Boutin RD, Netto AP, Nakamura D, Bateni C, Szabo RM, Cronan M, Foster B, Barfield WR, Seibert JA, Chaudhari AJ Tags: Clin Orthop Relat Res Source Type: research