Skin patches and MRIs may not mix
March 5, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Skin patches are a great method to give some types of medications. Some medications, like fentanyl, can be given for up to 72 hours with the application of one patch. Other medications given by patch include hormones and nicotine, to name a few.
The FDA is warning, however, that if you have to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam, you should tell your doctor if you’re wearing a patch. It seems that some of these patches have some traces of metal – a no-no when it comes to MRIs because of the magnetic component. If you have a patch that has some metal in it, you could get a burn on your skin.
It’s not common and the burn isn’t worse than a severe sunburn – at worst – but it’s still best to be safe than sorry.
Source: WebMD
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Tags: pain blog, MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, skin patches
