Therapy of acute oral poisoning by organic solvents: treatment by activated charcoal in combination with laxatives.

High doses of activated charcoal effectively decrease enteral absorption of organic solvents. Insufficiently large amounts of liquid paraffin or castor oil showed no protective effect. On the contrary, blood levels of some solvents were increased, especially by paraffin. Therefore, the use of paraffin in the therapy of solvent intoxications prior to the application of activated charcoal cannot be generally recommended.