Blood-brain barrier transport of morphine in patients with severe brain trauma.

Results The area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) ratio of unbound morphine in brain tissue to plasma was 0.64 (95% confidence interval 0.40, 0.87) in 'better' brain tissue ( P < 0.05 vs. the subcutaneous fat/plasma ratio), 0.78 (0.49, 1.07) in 'worse' brain tissue and 1.00 (0.86, 1.13) in subcutaneous fat. The terminal half-life and T max were longer in the brain vs. plasma and fat, respectively. The relative recovery for morphine was higher in 'better' than in 'worse' brain tissue. The T max value tended to be shorter in 'worse' brain tissue.