Surface Palpation - Introduction

Procedure for Palpating Fat


Fat of the Medial Thigh

Presence of a thick fat layer can hinder palpation of underlying structures. The implications include difficulty in determining bony landmarks to assess skeletal alignment or movement, difficulty in accurately locating a pain source or determining sites for electrode placement used in analysis of posture and movement, etc.

Fat is compressible with markedly varying degrees of firmness.