[Diffusion of ceftriaxone into the human brain].

Study of the penetration of ceftriaxone into the brain of patients who underwent surgery for cerebral tumors. Seventeen patients received 2 g of ceftriaxone intravenously 2 h to 13 h before blood and brain samples were taken. Ceftriaxone levels in serum and in non tumoral cerebral tissue were determined by the agar well diffusion technique. Hemoglobin concentration was measured in cerebral samples in order to subtract ceftriaxone due to blood contamination. True ceftriaxone levels in cerebral tissue ranged from 0.3 to 12 mcg/g, mean 1.63 mcg/g. The ceftriaxone level ratio in brain and serum was low, mean about 2%, but cerebral ceftriaxone concentrations would be sufficient to inhibit more than 75% of bacteria isolated in recent cerebral abscesses. These results allow to do further therapeutic studies of ceftriaxone in cerebral abscesses due to identified and susceptible bacteria or in random treatment in association with antibiotics directed on anaerobic organisms and resistant hospital strains.