ABSORPTION OF COMPOUND SOLUTION OF IODINE FROM THE GASTRO-INTESTINAL TRACT

Abstract

Although iodine had been used with beneficial results in isolated cases of exophthalmic goiter prior to 1923, the widespread use of compound solution of iodine, U.S.P., is the result of a paper by Plummer and Boothby¹published in that year. Since then compound solution of iodine has been used by nearly every clinician for treatment and in the preoperative and postoperative care of patients with this disease. Plummer and Boothby¹stated that they used liquor iodi compositus "because it is an aqueous solution of iodine (5 per cent) and potassium iodide (10 per cent) and therefore provides a large amount of iodide loosely combined with potassium." It would appear that Plummer and Boothby¹believed that since compound solution of iodine contains free iodine, a greater amount of iodine is available for absorption than there would be if potassium iodide were used alone. Although many papers on the