Laboratory evaluation and serum level of phenobarbital administered by different pathways in dogs / Avaliação laboratorial e nível sérico do fenobarbital administrado por diferentes vias em cão

ABSTRACT

Background: Anticonvulsants are widely used in the treatment of small animals for the remission of isolated seizures and recurrent seizures in epilepsy, including tonic-clonic seizures and in status epileticus. Phenobarbital is the drug of choice for the management of epileptic seizures, it is considered very effective, safe, low cost and with few side effects. Several routes of administration may be used, with the oral, intravenous and intramuscular routes being the most common, with rectal and nasal routes being the least common.Materials, Methods & Results: Twenty mongrel dogs were used in the present study (aged 1 to 6-year-old, males and females, weighing 6.0 to 17.0 kg). The patients were previously evaluated via physical examination, temperature, respiratory and heart rate, laboratory tests (erythrogram and leukogram), and serum biochemistry by analyzing the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (FA), and gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT). Four experimental groups were established with five animals in each group animals receiving intramuscular injections of phenobarbital (VIM), animals receiving nasal administration of phenobarbital (VN), animals receiving rectal administration of phenobarbital (VR), and animals receiving oral administration of phenobarbital (VO). Phenobarbital was administered every 12 h for 15 days. To determine the serum level of phenobarbital, 5 mL of jugular vein blood was collected in vacuum tubes for evaluation via hemogram. The serum level was determined after 15 days of continuous administration of phenobarbital, as stable phenobarbital serum levels can only be achieved from 10 to 15 days after the first administration. For the serum biochemistry evaluation, 10 mL of blood from the jugular vein was collected using vacuum syringes for assessing ALT, AST, GGT, and FA levels.[...](AU)