Upper limb radiography (pediatric)

Last revised by Andrew Murphy on 23 Mar 2023

Upper limb radiography involves plain film imaging of the shoulder, humerus, ulna, radius, metacarpals and carpal bones in pediatric patients. Depending on the patients' age, the difficulty of the examination will vary, often requiring a specialist trained radiographer familiar with a variety of distraction and immobilization techniques. 

Patients should remove any clothing or jewelry on the affected upper limb. 

Often difficulties in imaging the pediatric upper limb radiography include:

To overcome this, a variety of techniques can be used:

  • distract the patient with toys, games and/or conversation
  • perform immobilization with blankets and velcro straps

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Cases and figures

  • Case 1: AP shoulder
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  • Case 2: lateral shoulder
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  • Case 3: AP clavicle
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  • Case 4: AP upper limb
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  • Case 5: lateral upper limb
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  • Case 6: lateral humerus
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  • Case 7: AP humerus
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  • Case 8: AP elbow
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  • case 10: PA wrist
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  • Case 11: lateral wrist
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  • Case 12: AP hand
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  • Case 13: lateral thumb
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  • Case 9: lateral elbow
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