Phenytoin is a medicine used to treat seizures. If too much is taken, patients have ill
effects including sleepiness, unsteady gait, and eye problems. The amount of drug in their
system can be measured in their blood. Charcoal is a medicine that can absorb phenytoin. We
want to see if giving multiple doses of charcoal will quicken the removal of phenytoin from
the blood. This is theorized to occur as charcoal absorbs phenytoin from across the
intestines and then is secreted in the stool. Patients will be selected to receive either
charcoal in multiple doses or no charcoal and their serum levels will be drawn repeatedly to
follow their level. The different groups will then be compared to see if multidose charcoal
does indeed increase the elimination of phenytoin from the body.