Anatomical side marker

Last revised by Henry Knipe ◉ on 23 Mar 2025

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Bell D, Anatomical side marker. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 26 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-208247

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-208247

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/208247

rID:

208247

Article created:

22 Mar 2025, Daniel J Bell ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Daniel J Bell had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Daniel J Bell's current disclosures

Last revised:

23 Mar 2025, Henry Knipe ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Henry Knipe had the following disclosures:

Micro-X Ltd, Shareholder (past)

These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.

View Henry Knipe's current disclosures

Revisions:

2 times, by 2 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Sections:

Radiography, Imaging Technology

Tags:

snippet

Synonyms:

Anatomical side markers
Side marker
Orientation marker
Side markers
Orientation markers
ASM (anatomical side marker)
ASMs (anatomical side markers)
Left marker
Right marker
Left markers
Right markers
Laterality marker
Laterality markers

An anatomical side marker, also known as a side marker or orientation marker, is the label on a medical image denoting which side of the body it is.

Historically in radiography, the side marker was a physical marker placed by the radiographer at the side of the patient so that it would be captured on the radiograph during x-ray exposure. Increasingly nowadays it is a digital marker added to the image at the time of processing.

These markers are a key patient safety feature and may result in fatal consequences if they are incorrectly placed ⁴. Despite their clear importance, several studies have demonstrated that they are sometimes placed incorrectly or often not at all ^2,3,5.