WARNING this technique might not work for you since there are some nuances, but for me, it tends to get the job done. This tip was to always shoot the lateral knee cross-table and to have the IR parallel to the femur no the tube. By doing this, I was able to learn a few simple tips that would have otherwise taken me ten years and over 100 retakes to figure out. The way I learned how to get rockstar lateral knee x-rays was that I ate a little crow and asked a senior tech to show me his technique. I would be lying if I said that I have not struggled with this in the past, but at the end of the day our job is to help people get better not get a big head because we can get the odontoid 90% of the time! I know there can be a tendency within some radiography departments to want to be known as a “RADTECH SUPERSTAR!” Knowing these points, will not only dramatically increase your chances of success but will also save you from looking confused once you are in the room with the patient. Is one room better for table work where another has a better upright bucky?.Do you fully understand how to navigate within the imaging system’s computer interface?.Are there any weird bugs in the room that might cause the tube and IR to not line up correctly or drift?.Are the techniques saved within the imaging system accurate?.Is there auto-collimation or do you have to do all collimation manually?.In order to best prepare yourself for success, you need to know the nuts and bolts of these rooms and how each manufacturers equipment works. For example, one room would have a state of the art Siemens DR equipment where another would have a CR based Philips system dating back to the civil war! Often this was due to having different manufacturers equipment from room to room. What I mean by this, is that what worked perfectly in on room would not always work in the other. ![]() I have worked at places where each room seemed to have a mind of their own. This sounds like a no-brainer, but not all equipment or imaging rooms for that matter are the same. ![]() Through my time working in radiography departments, emergency rooms, ortho offices, and, as a mobile radiography tech I have picked up a few tips on what has helped me to get a good radiograph, most of the time. Is there one single view or a series that has been your Achilles heel (pun intended)? Eventually, I figured out that by shooting the lateral knee cross-table, that I could get the condyles to perfectly superimpose almost everytime, thus producing a good lateral knee image! No matter what I did or who helped me, the radiograph would always turn out being either over rotated or just funky looking. When I was a student, the most difficult x-rays for me to get right was the lateral knee.
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