Cefoperazone pharmacokinetics in patients with liver cirrhosis: a predictive value of the ujoviridin test.

Pharmacokinetics of cefoperazone was studied in 10 healthy volunteers and in 11 patients with liver cirrhosis. In the same persons, we also examined the clearance of ujoviridin--a preparation of indocyanine green. Within 12 h, 31.8 (+/- 7.6)% of the 2 g dose of cefoperazone was eliminated in the urine of healthy persons and 74.3 (+/- 7.9)% (mean +/- SD) was eliminated in the urine of cirrhotics. The biological half-life (beta-phase) of cefoperazone in healthy volunteers and in cirrhotics was 1.77 (+/- 0.25) and 4.29 (+/- 1.16) h, total clearance 1.009 (+/- 0.187) and 0.583 (+/- 0.169) ml/s and hepatic clearance 0.694 (+/- 0.174) and 0.152 (+/- 0.079) ml/s, respectively. The differences are statistically significant (p less than 0.001). We also found good correlation between total clearance of cefoperazone and clearance of ujoviridin (r = 0.842) and even better between hepatic clearance of cefoperazone and ujoviridin clearance (r = 0.957), both statistically significant. The findings suggest that the dosage of cefoperazone should be reduced in patients with liver cirrhosis and that the ujoviridin clearance test is a good indicator of impaired cefoperazone elimination.