Keywords:
Emergency, Gastrointestinal tract, Conventional radiography, CT, Removal, Medico-legal issues, Foreign bodies
Authors:
F. Somma1, A. Faggian1, A. Pinto1, R. Grassi2, A. Rotondo3; 1Napoli/IT, 2Naples/IT, 3Napoli (NA)/IT
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2012/C-2223
Results
Eighteen/23 suspected body-packers or body-stuffers were found positive on plain abdominal radiographs,
three/23 negative and two/23 equivocal.
CT examination was performed in case of negative or equivocal x-ray (five/23) and in further six/23 to better characterize and localize the foreign bodies,
using the following windowing parameters in addition to those commonly used for abdominal CT: level -150~ -300,
width 600 ~800.
CT was found positive in all cases (nive/9),
even in case of previous negative or equivocal x-ray and this is probably due to chemical improvements in the packing materials and drug composition (5),
which make the drug packets less radiopaque than in the past and definitely similar to soft tissues.
As indirect sign of the presence of drug packets,
it is useful to focus on its shape that in our series was mostly cylinder-like (sixteen/23) or ovoid (five/23),
while irregular in two/23.
Regarding the size,
only in one/23 the length of 5 cm was exceeded.