Left and right anatomy

[Doctor W]

Hi there
It is taking me time to adjust to the fact that when looking at anatomical pictures, whats left in the picture is actually right on the body, and vice versa. I can figure it out in 2 to 3 seconds, but I want to know if I will ever be able to automatically identify the correct position. Have you guys been able to overcome this?

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[CherryRedDracul]

It's become second nature to me after getting enough experience.

 

[Crayola227]

maybe this will seem weird, but what is nice about medicine and anatomic left and right is that it is always from the "1st person perspective"

I am a lefty, and as such that has made keeping track of left/right notoriously difficult for me, but I have developed a great technique I'm proud of, but it's also partly because I have a very visual memory

I make a mental picture of whatever I'm examining, and when I go to report, I mentally place myself as though I am literally in the patient's shoes

say I'm in the ED, and I'm checking out some dude's knee. When I walk in, I make a mental picture. When I'm looking at him, it is the knee that visually appears on my left

however, if I were to rotate around and "put myself in his shoes" than it is my right knee

This was the only way I personally found to be able to consistently get it right, and at first it was a good amount of mental effort, but now I can do it very swiftly in my mind and not get it mixed up. We all have the same left and right if we put ourselves in someone else's shoes.

 

[Psai]

I think of a person standing up and then I flip them around in my head so I'm looking at them from the feet like they're going into a ct scanner

 

[ortnakas]

Eventually everything else will seem backwards.

(Friends and I were confused about the Katy Perry left shark incident because to us, it was clearly the right shark who was hilarious/a problem)

 

[lymphocyte]

We all have the same left and right if we put ourselves in someone else's shoes.

Deep.

 

[StraightOuttaBrooklyn]

This is not a very complicated thing. Every time you look at a radiograph, pretend you are shaking hands with the patient. Enjoy medical school!

 

[ACSurgeon]

Hi there
It is taking me time to adjust to the fact that when looking at anatomical pictures, whats left in the picture is actually right on the body, and vice versa. I can figure it out in 2 to 3 seconds, but I want to know if I will ever be able to automatically identify the correct position. Have you guys been able to overcome this?

Make sure you take the 2 seconds it takes to be sure. It can be disorienting sometimes, and that's probably why wrong side surgery occurs when it does (and wrong side documentation in the chart).

 

[mvenus929]

The only time I get confused now is when something isn't where it should be--heart on the right side of the chest, for instance.

I also take a mental picture of the patient, but do it subconsciously, so when I'm presenting the patient, I visualize them and explain my physical exam findings as I go. It rarely trips me up.

 

[CharakaComplex]

I can agree it kind of ****s your sense of left and right up, though. It's still jarring to imagine that the stomach is on the left and the liver on the right when clearly, isolate images indicate the opposite... lol, I nearly had a fit when I felt pain in my left hypochondrium the other day before realising that the liver's not there and it's probably gas in my stomach.