Distribution of phenobarbital in serum, brain and other organs from pediatric patients.

The present study was performed to determine whether serum levels of phenobarbital were representative of their concentrations in the brains obtained from 11 autopsied patients, including premature and full-term babies, infants and children. Estimation of phenobarbital concentrations in plasma and organs was performed by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Brain phenobarbital concentrations correlated well with serum levels (r = 0.82, p less than 0.01, n = 11), giving a regression line with a slope of 0.75. It can be concluded that estimating the serum phenobarbital concentration during clinical pediatric practice gives a good indication of the brain concentration.