Carnett's Sign

In medicine, Carnett's sign is an eponymous finding on clinical examination in which (acute) abdominal pain remains unchanged or increases when the muscles of the abdominal wall are tensed. For this part of the abdominal examination, the patient can be asked to lift the head and shoulders from the examination table to tense the abdominal muscles. An alternative is to ask the patient to raise both legs with straight knees.

A positive test increases the likelihood that the abdominal wall and not the abdominal cavity is the source of the pain (for example, due to rectus sheath hematoma instead of appendicitis). A negative Carnett's sign is said to occur when the abdominal pain decreases when the patient is asked to lift the head; this points to an intra-abdominal cause of the pain.