from PART I - PLAIN RADIOGRAPHY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
Plain radiography remains the imaging study of choice for most applications in the upper extremity. Far and away, the most common indication for plain radiography in the upper extremity is acute trauma. The shoulder, humerus, elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand are common radiographic series that are useful in diagnosing an acute fracture. Other imaging modalities such as CT, ultrasound, and MRI are not generally indicated in acute trauma, but have an important role in diagnosing soft tissue pathology.
Another common indication for plain radiography of the upper extremity is the search for a foreign body in a wound. Plain films are an excellent modality for the detection of common, dense foreign bodies encountered in wounds, such as glass and rock, but they are much less sensitive in the detection of plastic or organic materials (1). Other imaging modalities such as CT, ultrasound, and MRI are superior for the detection of organic and plastic foreign bodies (2). The principles of using plain films for foreign body detection are similar regardless of the location in the body and are not discussed in further detail here.
In this chapter, the upper extremity is divided into three sections: 1) the shoulder, 2) the elbow and forearm, and 3) the wrist and hand.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.