Ask Us > Bupivacaine levels

I'm wondering about drawing bupivacaine levels after intralipid is given. Is this an accurate estimation of the plasma concentration?
September 27, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnes Doc
Very good question. You can draw blood but two important factors are at play. First relates to what component or compartment of blook you will measure: total, lipid or aqueous. Optimally, you want to see all three. You would do this by splitting the plasma sample and then spinning one of these in an ultracentrifuge to separate the lipid from the aqueous. you can then take the lipid cap (best done by freezing and cutting the specimen) and hexane extract for the bupivacaine. then measure bupiv concentration in all three specimens. the partition coefficient we've found is ~20. so that if you know the lipid volume and the total value ... you can then estimate the aqueous and lipid values. good luck,
guy
October 18, 2011 | Registered Commenter[Guy Weinberg]