Intravenous urography is becoming an increasingly safer procedure as improvement in the iodine-containing contrast media has been developed.1 With decreases in serious reactions to patients, there has been a corresponding decrease in mild but unpleasant side-effects, such as nausea, vomiting, vertigo, flushing, urticaria, and arm pain. These untoward reactions, while by no means serious, cause the patient concern and discomfort and often indirectly influence the quality of the roentgenograms.
Recently, investigators have reported that antihistaminic preparations administered before I.V. pyelography have decreased the incidence of side-effects. Bryne and Melick,2 administering oral diphenhydramine (Benadryl) before the injection of a 70% solution of acetrizoate (Urokon) decreased undesirable side-effects of urticaria and excessive lachrymation completely, but the incidence of nausea or vomiting did not diminish. Bohne and Christeson, using antihistaminic premedication, decreased the incidence of all side-effects to 4%, in contrast to the 17% rate of reactions when antihistaminics were not