Turkish Neurosurgery 1990 , Vol 1 , Num 3
DOES HEAD INJURY ALTER CEREBROSPINAL FLUID PHENYTOIN LEVEL? A Clinicopharmacological study
H. Zafer KARS1, Nur ALTIMORS1, Özden PALAOĞLU2, Cengiz ÇEPOĞLU1, Nuri ARDA1, Ayhan TÜRKER1, Engin ŞENVELİ1, Nusret ÇINAR1
1Clinic of Neurosurgery. Sodal Security Assodation Hospital. Ankara and
2Department of Pharmacology, Ankara University Medical School. Turkey
Forty craniocerebral trauma patients who were hospitalized for observation or surgical intervention were administered phenytoin for anticonvulsant prophylaxis. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples were taken on the eighth day of medication and pheytoin levels were determined with the aim of searching for a possible correlation between the severity of trauma and cerebrospinal fluid phenytoin level. Glasgow Coma Scale scores of the patients ranged from 4 to 15. Twenty-eight patients had traumatic lesions on computed tomographic scans. Early posttraumatic epilepsy was not observed. No significant association was noted between the severity of trauma, resulting pathological changes, and cerebrospinal fluid phenytoin levels. Keywords : Anticonvulsant prophylaxis, Head Injury, Phenytoin