Can an x-ray taken from one side of body part detect break or fracture on otherside too?

Question

I injured my foot recently and they x-rayed from right to left of the foot. The pain was on the left so I suspect that is where the break/fracture would be. They did not x-ray left to right. Can they detect a break/fracture on the left side even though the x-ray was taken from the right?

Answer 1

Possibly not.

X-rays work because the density of the bones absorb x-rays and stop that bit of the film from being exposed.

A bone on one side is likely to be masked by the '1st bone' the x-ray 'doesn't' go through on the other side (if you understand my meaning).

Could go into, distance and density attenuation coefficients, but it probably wouldn't mean anything to you.

Answer 2

Hi there, that is a good question and rest assured U are not alone. Most times when patients come in with similar situations and I am taking their X-ray, they tend to turn the affected side upwards.

However, standard views are normally employed for each body part, so we cannot just make up how to take x-rays we have to follow the protocols.

On the other hand the nature of the properties of X-ray allows it to go through your body part and you see all dimension of the bone. What the reporters (doctors and radiographers) looks for are certain irregularities that you can normally see from the standard views.

hope this helps!

Answer 3

The X ray will show the doctor all the bones of that foot.

Answer 4

X-ray "sees through", but actually it's better to have the affected area closest to the cassette anyway.

FYI to everybody: we know what we're doing - don't question us.