Misinterpretation of Silver Coated Wounds Dressing as Gastrograffin Bowel Leak: Case Report

Saed Jaber^1, , Ali Shehri², Ali Orf², Mahmoud AbdelMoeti¹, Bader Tayara¹, Mohamad Saif¹ and Basma Fallatah¹

¹Department of Surgery, King Fahd Military Medical Complex, Dhahran City, Saudi Arabia

²Department of Radiology, King Fahd Military Medical Complex, Dhahran City, Saudi Arabia

Cite this paper:
Saed Jaber, Ali Shehri, Ali Orf, Mahmoud AbdelMoeti, Bader Tayara, Mohamad Saif and Basma Fallatah. Misinterpretation of Silver Coated Wounds Dressing as Gastrograffin Bowel Leak: Case Report. Global Journal of Surgery. 2014; 2(1):1-3. doi: 10.12691/js-2-1-1

Abstract

In recent years, a wide range of wound dressings containing elemental silver or a silver-releasing compound have been developed. The anti-microbial activity of silver is well documented in the literature with multiple studies illustrating its effect on a wide variety of organisms, including anaerobic and aerobic bacteria, fungi and viruses. As a metal, silver results in the appearance of artifacts in imaging studies. We report three cases that used different types of silver loaded dressings for the treatment of infected wounds. Computer tomography initially reported the silver loaded dressings as extravasations of the gastrograffin contrast medium. However, once the dressing was removed, the density disappeared. We present this case series to demonstrate this phenomenon.

Keywords:
silver gastrograffin extravasation

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