[Cocaine smuggling in the gastrointestinal tract--the case report with the review of literature].
Body-packing is the way of psychoactive substances smuggling by swallowing of carefully prepared packages with drugs into the gastrointestinal tract or by insertion them into the vagina or the rectum, especially in order to avoid finding them by the custom service. Cocaine, as well as opiates, is the one of the most often smuggled drugs by so called body-packers. In the present study the first case of the body-packer from Malopolska region in Poland, who was observed in the Toxicology Department of the Collegium Medicum UJ, was described. The 29-year-old man swallowed 60 packages containing cocaine with a total net weight of about 500 grams. The plain abdominal radiography revealed multiple shadows of foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract, but the results of blood and urine cocaine measurements were negative. During the 37-hours stay in our department the patient was monitored (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature), laxatives and oral fluids were administered. All the packages were evacuated through the natural way and it was followed up by the control abdominal radiography. No symptoms of acute cocaine intoxication or any other complications were observed. According to the case there is also the thorough review of literature presented including the kinds of body-packing, the diagnostic methods used in recognizing of body-packers and the ways of their treatment taking into consideration the conservative management as well as surgical methods.
Ciszowski
Krzysztof
K
Klinika Toksykologii, Katedry Toksykologii Klinicznej i Srodowiskowej, Collegium Medicum, Uniwersytetu Jagiellońtskiego, Krakowie. wt_poohatek@wp.pl
Hydzik
Piotr
P
Waldman
Wojciech
W
Sein Anand
Jacek
J
D000328:Adult; D003042:Cocaine / Q000506:poisoning*; D003415:Crime; D004349:Drug Packaging; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000628:therapy; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009294:Narcotics / Q000506:poisoning*; D011860:Radiography, Abdominal
D009294:Narcotics; D003042:Cocaine