Prior to this most recent surgery, the ortho said something I didn’t quite understand during my last appointment. He looked at the new x-rays and said that the surgical screw in my wrist was loose, and that the lucent areas on the x-rays were an indication of that. I didn’t really know what that meant, so I went searching on the internet, and I found this webpage that explains how to read an x-ray.
Your doctor might not actually show you your x-rays (mine always does), but, if you read the webpage, you should have a better understanding of what your doctor is telling you about your x-rays.
This part explains the basics pretty well, I think:
“The first principle behind knowing how to read an x-ray is knowing how different parts of the body will absorb an x-ray. This absorption falls into three basic categories and they are:
- Bone – appears light grey or white because it absorbs a high percentage of the x-ray (metal is pure white)
- Tissue – appears a greyish color because it absorbs some but not a majority of the x-ray (water or fat, for example)
- Air – appears black because it absorbs a very low percentage of the x-ray (gas, for example)” – https://www.npinstitute.com/how-to-read-x-rays-s/1860.htm
Unfortunately, this webpage doesn’t talk about lucency. However, this other webpage explains that “the term ‘lucency’ is a technical term for an area that lets X-rays through the tissue and as a result appears darker on the picture.” In other words, “lucency” is doctor speak for x-rays being able to pass through a part of your body, thus appearing black. So, in radiology terminology, “lucent” means dark, not light, which is why I was initially confused.
My understanding is this: Rather than a white area (bone) around the screw, showing that the screw was tight in the bone, my ortho was seeing dark areas (air) around the screw, showing that the screw was NOT tight in the bone, i.e., the screw was loose.
Does this clear up x-rays for you too, or do you still have questions?
