Quantitative analysis of common anaesthetic agents.

A summary of chromatographic (e.g. gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography) and non-chromatographic (e.g. radioimmunoassay, enzyme-multiplied immunoassay) analytical techniques suitable for the quantitative analysis of the most popular inhalational (halothane, methoxyflurane, enflurane, isoflurane and nitrous oxide), intravenous (barbiturate, benzodiazepines, etomidate, althesin, morphine, fentanyl, alfentanil, sufentanil, droperidol and ketamine) general and amide-type local (lidocaine, mepivacaine, etidocaine and bupivacaine) anaesthetic agents and some of their metabolites, in biological material, is described. In the case of inhalational anaesthetics attention is also payed to pollution measurement and breath-to-breath monitoring.