Determining Phenytoin Dosage with the Use of a Programmable Calculator

Abstract

Phenytoin often can be a difficult drug to dose because of its nonlinear elimination kinetics. Interpatient variability of the hydroxylating enzyme further complicates matters. Several methods have been proposed to aid the practitioner in predicting the correct dose to give a patient. Ludden et al. have proposed a method based on the patient's plasma concentration to dose response. This method is somewhat complicated. The authors present two programs for the programmable calculator based on this method.