Internal Medicine

A physical examination is an examination of the patient in terms of the medical symptoms of the disease that are objective and observable, as opposed to the symptoms that are voluntary and not necessarily objectively observable. The health care provider uses sight, hearing, touch, and sometimes smell (eg, in infection, uremia, diabetic ketoacidosis). Four actions are the basis of the physical examination: inspection, palpation (feel), percussion (tap to determine resonance characteristics), and auscultation (listen), generally in this order, although auscultation occurs before percussion and palpation to assess the abdomen. Clinical examination includes the study of the following: • Stomach and rectum • Cardiovascular (heart of blood vessels) • General appearance of the patient and specific indicators of the disease (nutritional status, presence of jaundice, pallor) • Reproductive system (and pregnancy if the patient is pregnant or may be pregnant) • Head, eyes, ears, nose and throat (HEENT) Musculoskeletal (including spine and limbs) • Neurological (awareness, awareness, brain, vision, cranial nerves, spinal cord and peripheral nerves) • Psychiatry (tendency, mental state