Thiopental is an ultra-short acting barbiturate, used either to induce anesthesia, or to manage intracranial hypertension associated with head injuries. A high performance liquid chromatography method vas proposed for the rapid and easy determination of thiopental in biological fluids. After precipitation of proteins with acetonitrile the chromatographic separation vas performed onto a reversed-phase column with an acetonitrile-perchlorate buffer mixture as mobile phase. Compounds were analysed at 300nm and the detection limit vas about 0.1 mg/1. The analytical procedure vas applied to the therapeutic follow-up in patients (8 childrens. 4 adults) treated with long-term infusion of thiopental after head injury, and to a pharmacokinetic study in patients receiving a single 1Y bolus of thiopental to induce anesthesia.