ABSTRACT
The observation stems from the German medical literature in the 1940s and 1950s, which showed the presence of foam cells or globular deposits in the liver of humans following the intravenous administration of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a plasma expander. The elimination of PVP of varying molecular weights following parenteral administration has been tabulated from the world literature up to the 1960s by Wessel et al. They reported that the half-life for the elimination of PVP with an average molecular weight of 40,000 ranges from as low as 12 hours to as high as 72 hours in experimental animals. The lymphatic storage of PVP which has diffused through capillary pores into the lymphatic fluid is attenuated by the fact that the molecule can also diffuse out of the lymphatics. Orally or intravenously administered PVP would be expected to enter the lymphatics in varying amounts, with little following oral administration, due to limitations in intestinal absorption.
