The Hannington-Kiff sign is a clinical sign

Medical sign

A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient....

 in which there is an absent adductor reflex in the thigh in the presence of a positive patellar reflex

Patellar reflex

The patellar reflex or knee-jerk is a deep tendon reflex and is a myotatic reflex.-Mechanism:Striking the patellar tendon with a tendon hammer just below the patella stretches the sensory nerve fiber of the femoral nerve which synapses at the level of L4 in the spinal cord, completely independent...

. It occurs in patients with an obturator hernia

Obturator hernia

An obturator hernia is a rare type of abdominal wall hernia in which abdominal content protrudes through the obturator foramen. Because of differences in anatomy, it is much more common in women than in men, especially multiparous and older women who have recently lost a lot of weight. The...

, due to compression of the obturator nerve

Obturator nerve

The obturator nerve in human anatomy arises from the ventral divisions of the second, third, and fourth lumbar nerves; the branch from the third is the largest, while that from the second is often very small.-Path:...

.

The adductor reflex is elicited by tapping over either the medial epicondyle of the femur or the medial condyle of the tibia, which should cause the adductor muscles of the hip

Adductor muscles of the hip

In human anatomy, the adductor muscles of the hip is a group of muscles of the thigh.-Muscles:The adductor group is made up of:*Adductor brevis*Adductor longus*Adductor magnus*Adductor minimus This is often considered to be a part of adductor magnus....

to contract, moving the leg inwards.

The sign was described by John G Hannington-Kiff in 1980.