Joint Hypermobility and Spectrum Disorders

Joint hypermobility is a greater than normal range of movement at the joints, and it is common and often harmless.

With pain, instability or recurrent injury it may be a hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) or hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS).

It is assessed with the Beighton score and managed mainly through physiotherapy. The key safety step is recognising when to look for a serious heritable connective tissue disorder such as Marfan syndrome or vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

For the sport and exercise medicine (SEM) clinician, the tasks are classifying hypermobility, knowing when to refer, and guiding conditioning and return to sport.