Digitally placed anatomic markers can always determine the correct anatomic side of the patient.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Sometimes
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (B)

The ability to determine which side of the patient you’re looking at cannot rely solely on digitally placed markers. Markers can be added after exposure, mispositioned, reversed, or cropped out, and image flipping or software changes can invert or obscure them. Even when a digital marker exists, it may not be visible in all views or could be placed on the wrong side during post-processing. Because of these risks, side determination should be corroborated with proper labeling from the imaging session, patient identifiers, and, whenever possible, physical lateral markers placed at the time of exposure and checked across all projections.