Is surgical decontamination definitive treatment of "body-packers"?

The current recommendations for body-packers are based on packet content, t he presence of drug toxicity, or of bowel obstruction. Asymptomatic patient s are usually treated with activated charcoal and whole bowel irrigation (W BI). Surgical removal of packets is advocated in symptomatic cocaine body-p ackers and in those with bowel obstruction. Currently, surgery is regarded as definitive. However, we report 2 body-packers who show the limitations o f this technique. These cases show the importance of confirming the absence of drug packets in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract as the definitive end-p oint in the treatment of body-packers. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.