Diskography with iotrolan before chemonucleolysis with chymopapain.

The neuroradiologic changes after chemonucleolysis were studied in animal experiments conducted to establish whether there is any interaction between chymopapain and the contrast medium iotrolan. Twenty canine disks were examined by diskography with iotrolan 300 mg I/ml before nucleolysis with chymopapain. Twenty disks were subjected only to nucleolysis. For control purposes, another 10 disks were examined by diskography without the administration of chymopapain. The neuroradiologic follow-up study with conventional radiography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar vertebral column revealed typical signs of the effect of chymopapain in all nucleolysed disks, regardless of whether diskography had been performed before chemonucleolysis or not. On the basis of our results, there is no need to fear an interaction between the new dimeric, nonionic contrast medium iotrolan and the substance chymopapain used for chemonucleolysis.