Methylene blue is used in endoscopic polypectomy as an adjunct to saline or epinephrine, and is used for injection into the submucosa around the polyp to be removed. This allows the submucosal tissue plane to be identified after the polyp is removed, which is useful in determining if more tissue needs to be removed, or if there has been a high risk for perforation. Methylene blue is also used as a dye in chromoendoscopy, and is sprayed onto the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract in order to identify dysplasia, or pre-cancerous lesions. Intravenously injected methylene blue is readily released into the urine and thus can be used to test the urinary tract for leaks or fistulas.
In surgeries such as sentinel lymph node dissections, methylene blue can be used to visually trace the lymphatic drainage of pertinent tissues. Similarly, methylene blue is added to bone cement in orthopedic operations to provide easy discrimination between native bone and cement. Additionally, methylene blue accelerates the hardening of bone cement, increasing the speed at which bone cement can be effectively applied.
Guess your “source “ is wrong. Xray is NOT the only manner in which one uses a dye in medicine. In fact dyes are mostly not used for x-rays since those are looking at hard ( or hardening) masses
interesting... thanks. I’ll pass it along to him.