ANALYSIS OF FENTANYL AND SUFENTANIL IN HAIR BY GC MS/MS/

Fentanyl and sufentanil are potent narcotic analgesics used only in ho spitals as anaesthetic agents. The dependence potential of fentanyl is known. As they are given in doses at the microgram level and their el imination half-life is in the order of a few hours, detection in body fluids is possible only for a short time after administration. Radioim munological methods are the only ones capable of detecting fentanyl in hair, as normal GC/MS methods for hair analysis are not sensitive eno ugh to detect the drugs after doses in the order of micrograms. We the refore chose GC/MS/MS to analyse fentanyl and sufentanil in two cases where the drugs were given under controlled conditions over several da ys. The concentration was in the order of less than 100 pg/mg hair.