Aspiration of metrizamide following lumbar myelography

When metrizamide was aspirated at the termination of lumbar myelography in 117 patients, 20% complained of a headache and 9% complained of nausea. There were no episodes of seizures. Chemical analysis of aspirated cerebrospinal fluid showed that 66% of the injected contrast material was recovered. Little additional effort is required to reduce the incidence of minor but frequent adverse reactions to metrizamide myelography.