Direct percussion involves striking the body directly to elicit sounds.

• A. Direct percussion
• B. Indirect percussion
• C. Fist percussion
• D. Percussion tapping on surface

Answer: (A)

Direct percussion means striking the body directly with the fingertips to produce a sound. This method provides immediate feedback from the body wall, helping to distinguish air-filled areas (like the lungs) from solid or fluid-filled areas (like the liver or a mass) based on the quality of the sound produced. The description in the statement matches this technique, since no intermediate surface or instrument is used between the hand and the body.

Indirect percussion, by contrast, uses a finger placed on the body as a lever (pleximeter) and the tapping hand strikes that finger to generate sound. Tapping on a surface isn’t direct percussion because the body wall isn’t struck directly, and using a fist would be a different variation of percussion than the standard direct fingertip technique.