Clinical, Diagnostic, and Treatment Features of Body Packing in Brazil: Drugs, Cell Phones and Beyond

Introduction: Body packing is the smuggling of drugs and other contents inside the human body. However, non-narcotic contents studies are limited to rare case reports in literature. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate cases of body packers in Brazil considering narcotic and non-narcotic contents. Methods: Retrospective study analyzing the medical records of body packers admitted from January 2015 to December 2019 at one of the main tertiary hospitals in central Brazil. Results: Ten cases of body packing were observed. Only 50% of the patients carried drugs, while surprisingly, 70% carried non-content, especially cell phones and accessories. All the patients were male, prisoners and young adults. In 60%, there were gastrointestinal obstruction and in 30%, there was acute narcotic intoxication. Abdominal radiography was enough for diagnosis in 80% of the cases. In 90% of the cases, emergency laparotomy was required, but all the patients successfully recovered. Conclusions: There was a higher prevalence of body packing of non-narcotic content; however, clinical and radiological presentations were similar to those of narcotic content. Emergency surgery proved to be effective for both content types. This study highlights the concerning high prevalence of body packing of cell phones and accessories in addition to drugs.