Principles of Radiographic Positioning and Procedures Pocketguide by Richard Carlton, Arlene McKenna Adler, Joanne S. Greathouse

Product Details

Synopsis

The Radiographic Positioning and Procedures PocketGuide is a comprehensive and complete resource for radiography. It includes a quick reference to appropriate positioning procedures, radiation protection standards, and space for recording technical exposure factors, and a practical technique system guide. The guide provides the information necessary to remind the radiographer of the basic procedural details, typical technical considerations, and appropriate modifications for 165 common procedures.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Mary L Bloomfield, BA RT (R) (M) (Froedtert Hospital)
Description:This is a pocket guide to radiographic positions and procedures that is meant to be carried in the clinical site. It contains detailed information about almost all of the radiographic positions and procedures a diagnostic radiologic technologist will encounter, as well as information on how to create a functional personal exposure technique system. This second edition book was first published in 1999.
Purpose:The authors state in the preface that the goal of this book is to "provide a concise yet comprehensive guide for radiography with appropriate positioning procedures and radiation protection standards." These are worthy objectives for a pocket guide, and this type of guide is warranted for the radiography market. The book certainly meets the objective of providing a comprehensive guide, although I think it could be more concise. There is so much information included in this book that it is difficult to sort through. The book is more of a pocket textbook than a pocket guide.
Audience:The authors state that the book is written "to remind the radiographer of the basic procedural details, typical technical considerations, and appropriate modifications for 165 common procedures." They are not clear if they also consider radiology students in this audience, although they do include an appendix regarding radiography didactic and clinical competency requirements. The book is useful for the RT (R) and the radiology student, although there may at times be an overwhelming amount of information for the student to assimilate before beginning anexam. The authors are all credible authorities.
Features:This book begins with an excellent chapter on how to set up a technique system, and the subsequent chapters contain all the common radiographic positions and procedures that the radiologic technologist is most likely to encounter. It covers positions and projections for all bony structures (i.e. upper extremity, spine) , as well as the chest, abdomen, upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. There are also chapters covering trauma radiography of the spine and head. The special considerations page at the end of each chapter is very good. Trauma, pediatric, and geriatric considerations are covered when appropriate. The appendixes are also excellent and cover a variety of information such as abbreviations and surface landmarks. The one topic that isn't covered is the urinary system positioning. Excretory urograms are becoming less common, but many sites still do them.
Assessment:My biggest concerns regarding this book are the mislabeling of images (i.e., SC joints, p. 215, temporal bones, p. 227) and pictures that don't match the description (i.e., esophagus, p. 365) . I am also unhappy with the hand and wrist positioning photographs as they don't show the person seated with his or her elbow bent at 90 degrees and resting on the table. The elbow picture also doesn't show the person's humerus resting on the table even though the information states that the humerus should be on the same plane with the forearm. This pocket guide is highly organized and contains lots of information about each projection/position described. It is the most detailed pocket guide I have seen. The two pocket books I am most familiar with are: Ballinger and Frank, Pocket Guide to Radiography, 5th edition (Mosby, 2003) , and Madigan et al., Pocket Manual for Radiographic Anatomy and Positioning (McGraw-Hill, 1998) . Both of these offer much less information about each of the positions and projections. This new pocket guide offers more information, such as in-depth evaluation criteria, but I think it offers more than is appropriate for a pocket book. The second edition is justified because there are always changes that occur in radiographic positioning. It could have been updated more fully, however, by using metric image receptor sizes, information regarding computed radiography, and the term IR (image receptor) in place of screen/film.

Biography

Richard Carlton, MS, RT(R), CV, FABERS
Arkansas State U, State University, AR