A sensitive and reliable method based on solid-phase extraction and reversed-phase liquid chromatography was developed and validated for the quantitation of Lidocaine (Lid) in dog plasma. Phenacemide was used as an internal standard (IS) in the extraction which employed C18 solid-phase extraction cartridges. The washing and eluting solutions were 2 ml acetonitrile-pH 9.0 phosphate buffer (10:90 v/v) and 0.5 ml acetonitrile-pH 4.0 phosphate buffer (40:60 v/v). respectively. The eluent obtained from the cartridge was directly analyzed on a reversed-phase ODS column with UV detection at 210 nm. A clean chromatogram and high sensitivity were achieved at this wavelength. The mobile phase was acetonitrile and pH 5.9 phosphate buffer (20:80 v/v). The retention times were 6.4 and 7.2 min for Lid and IS, respectively, at a flow rate of 1.0 ml min(-1). The mean absolute recovery was 96.6% (n = 9) with a CV of 3.8% for Lid and 81.7% with CV of 2.5% (n = 3) for IS. The limit of quantitation was 20 ng ml(-1), with the intra- and inter-day precisions (n = 5) of 4.4 and 3.4%, respectively, and the intra- and inter-day accuracies (n = 5) of -4.3 and -5.0%, respectively. For the analyses of Lid in spiked plasma samples at 20, 100 and 200 ng ml(-1), the overall mean intra- and inter-day precisions (n = 15) were 3.9 and 4.9%, respectively, and the overall mean intra- and inter-day accuracies (n = 15) were -3.7 and -4.6%, respectively. The correlation coefficients for calibration plots in the range 20-1000 ng ml(-1) in plasma were typically higher than 0.998. The suitability of the method was demonstrated by the study in a beagle dog receiving a low intravenous dose of Lid.