Intravenous urography during lactation

Abstract

Two patients recently referred for intravenous urography whilst lactating spontaneously requested information concerning possible excretion of contrast medium in their breast milk, and if this would be harmful to their infants. There is a paucity of information available in the world literature concerning the excretion of drugs in breast milk (O'Brien, 1974). In the field of contrast media, only the oral cholecystographic agent iopanoic acid (Holmdahl, 1956) and the non-ionic water soluble agent metrizamide, administered by the intrathecal route (Ilett et al, 1981), have been studied; both show limited excretion. No information on ionic water-soluble contrast media was found.