Temocillin penetration of peripheral lymph.

An intravenous dose of temocillin 1g was administered to 5 healthy human volunteers from whom peripheral lymph, serum and urine were monitored for 12 hours. The concentrations after 1 hour were 14.3 mg/L in lymph and 58.1 mg/L in serum. The mean peak concentration in lymph (appearing between 1.5 and 2 hours) was 30.6 mg/L, and the simultaneous serum level was 47.8 mg/L. The lymph concentrations were always below those in serum, and the elimination half-life was 4.4 hours from lymph compared with 4.9 hours from serum. The ratio between the total areas under the concentration curves in lymph and in serum was 0.56, which reflects the ability of temocillin to penetrate to lymph. Serum protein binding appeared to impede the rate of transport from serum to lymph, but when compared with the results of less highly bound penicillins the total penetration of temocillin was better than expected.