Excretory urography by intraosseous injection of contrast media in a rabbit model

There are many indications for an intravenous excretory urogram, However, w here intravenous access is not available, the intraosseous route to the cir culation may be an alternative. We found that safe and diagnostic excretory urograms could be obtained in rabbits following the injection of different contrast media via the intraosseous route. In fact, these excretory urogra ms were indistinguishable from ones obtained by the conventional intravenou s route. While the rabbits did not develop any abnormal clinical signs foll owing the procedure, there were postmortem histologic lesions of osteochond rosis in 5 of 22 (22.7%) tibias receiving an intraosseous needle, but in no ne of the 14 tibias that did not receive an intraosseous needle. Further, t he use of diatrizoate was associated with the development of osteochondrosi s while the use of iopamidol was not.