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Alfred Sommer, MD
Baltimore

Arch Ophthalmol. 1980;98(9):1656.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The report by Smolin et al (ARCHIVES 97:2181-2183, 1979) on the beneficial effect of vitamin A in herpes keratitis in (presumably nondeficient) rabbits is intriguing. Nonetheless, their suggestion that the same dose extrapolated to humans "would probably not be toxic" is in error. The proverbial 70-kg man is 28 times the weight of their rabbits, suggesting a dose of nearly 3 million IU/day. Oil-miscible preparations of this size, taken orally, have caused acute toxicity even in full-grown adults.^1-3 Water-miscible parenteral preparations of the sort used by Smolin et al lead to still higher serum vitamin A levels and are likely to be far more toxic.^4,5 Massive parenteral doses of vitamin A are clearly nonphysiologic; the amount converted to retinol and attached to retinol-binding protein (holo-RBP) will represent only a tiny fraction of the circulating vita . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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