Intravenous cholangiography in childhood

Intravenous cholangiography (IVC) was performed on 102 children aged between one and 13 years. Eighty of the patients who were non-icteric were divided into four groups and received contrast medium containing either 53, 75, 106 or 150 mg iodine/kg body weight by intravenous injection over ten minutes. Complete demonstration of the common bile duct (CBD) was achieved in 85% of patients and in a similar proportion of all age groups. There was some delay in opacification of the CBD in young children but this was not of practical significance. The two higher dosage regimen gave significantly better results than the two lower dosages (p less than 0.001) and this improvement was evident in the young and older age groups. Nausea and vomiting occurred as side effects in 6%. In eight patients in whom there was inadequate demonstration by the standard IVC, an infusion technique over 3--8 hours was carried out. This improved the demonstration in three children with diagnostic results in two.