A cocaine body packer with normal abdominal plain radiograms. Value of drug detection in urine and contrast study of the bowel.

Drug packets are usually detected by ordinary abdominal radiographs, which is of major importance in the apprehension and prosecution of drug body packers, but false negatives may occur. We report the case of a cocaine body packer who had used the prograde route and in whom the initial abdominal plain films were normal. The diagnosis of cocaine body packing was assessed by seldom-described complementary methods of detection, including drug detection in the urine and contrast study of the bowel.

[Intracorporeal concealment of narcotics. Experience of medicolegal emergencies at the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris: 100 cases]. / Dissimulation intracorporelle de stupéfiants. Expérience des urgences médico-judiciaires de l'Hotel-Dieu de Paris: 100 cas.

One hundred cases of intracorporeal concealment of narcotic drugs were observed over a 6-month period at the medico-judicial emergency centre of the Hotel-Dieu hospital, Paris. Twelve cases concerned dealers who had ingested packs at the time they were arrested. The other subjects had been carrying the drug in their digestive tract, rectum or vagina for transportation. The illicit drugs thus transported were cocaine in 20 cases (ingestion), heroin in 65 cases (ingestion 7, rectal or vaginal cavity 58) and cannabis in 3 cases. Packs for sale being fragile, the dealers were particularly exposed to overdosage. Their management prior to intoxication was the same as that of acute ordinary drug poisoning, i.e. washing out of the stomach. In carriers, the risk of severe poisoning was associated with ingestion. The lack of antidote makes cocaine poisoning particularly dangerous. Surgical extraction is now reserved to cases with intestinal mechanical complications and to those increasingly rarer cases of fragile transportation packs.