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> This is unlike for a doctor, where it's obvious which side is which: you can see the patient. This isn’t always true and it’s not always obvious. For exampl
by lostlogin 4y ago
> This is unlike for a doctor, where it's obvious which side is which: you can see the patient.
This isn’t always true and it’s not always obvious.
For example with imaging - axial slices of the patient through symmetrical structures. The brain, lower abdo, a single leg or arm etc, etc. There are conventions in image display for a reason - it is not obvious.
For axial slices, as an observer, you are positioned as though at the foot of the patient’s bed. Your right is the patients left.
- eloisant 4y agoI don't know, when you're talking about "the right arm", it seems obvious that it's the patient's right arm and not the arm that you see on your right when you're looking at the patient. I don't think you need to go to medical school to understand that.
- ChrisRR 4y agoAssumptions like this is how errors are made. Don't make assumptions, codify it.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rprospero 4y agoYou're right that "the left lung" should obviously be the lung on the patient's left. However, can you look at the image below and immediately identify which is the "left" lung? https://scratch.rprosperoglobal.duckdns.org/lungs.png https://scratch.rprosperoglobal.duckdns.org/lungs.png
- lostlogin 4y agoI think I can, maybe. However I’m a radiographer and pictures like this are my job. The orientation is screwed up and images should almost never be displayed like this. If the patient’s organs are in non-standard locations (situs inversus, dextrocardia etc), something very bad will happen when orientations are messed with. Use standard orientations and label the images.
- adql 4y ago...you just expect random readers to know how lung looks on (i assume) MRI, from (I assume) top ? I'd also assume it would be simple to spot just because the image is always took from the same direction so the narrow part points out to front/back of the patient
- blowski 4y agoIt’s obvious 99% of the time, but that 1% equates to a lot of fatal errors.
- chuddington 4y ago[dead]
- HPsquared 4y agoShouldn't doctors simply use the Greek or Latin words for left and right?
- pbhjpbhj 4y agoLatin: sinister and dexter, I think they are used for parts of organs (eg liver); one source notes occulus sinister being used in the abbreviation OS for left eye. Greek dexios and aristeros ... well dexter come from dexios", as does the chemical suffix -dextrin. Aristeros* is a euphemism, it means something like "best" (I wonder if that's the origin of 'put your best foot forward') ... I'm told that left-sided things were unlucky to the Greek speaking peoples and Greek language apparently compensated by describing that position positively.
- WorldMaker 4y agoThe "left-side are unlucky" thing affects the Latin example as well as the Greek, at the very least in the way that English derived words get used: compare "dexterous" (modern English connotations of "able, agile") versus "sinister" (modern English connotations of "evil, subversive"). It's an interestingly deep rabbit hole in language etymology just how much "left" gets besmirched and "right" gets positive connotations. (The fact that "right" is also a synonym in English for "correct" being another bit of evidence.)