Dangers of Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate in Mixtures

To the Editor.— In their recent letter ( 213 :2273, 1970) your correspondents Drs. Reynolds and Redeker quote six cases of patients with liver disease following the prolonged administration of oxyphenisatin. Clearly, these point to the dangers of prolonged treatment with this substance, but they lead us away from Dr. Naess's warning about the inherent dangers of dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate combinations. In US patent 2,851,394 granted in 1958 to Joseph B. Vaughan (assignor to Lloyd Brothers Inc) the following paragraph occurs: It was further found in our laboratory that the oral administration of 1, 8 dihydroxyanthraquinone (Danthron) did not produce death in rats even in quantities of as much as 22 mg/kg. On the other hand, when this substance was administered in combination with non-toxic amounts of dioctyl sulfosuccinate only 9 mg/kg was sufficient to give a 50 percent kill in rats. This effect can only be due to increased absorption