A simple and precise high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure has been developed for the determination of temafloxacin and its trace level metabolites in biological matrices. Plasma samples are ultrafiltered after addition of an internal standard in a displacing reagent containing sodium dodecyl sulfate and acetonitrile. Plasma ultrafiltrates or diluted urines are chromatographed on a reversed-phase analytical column, using an ion-pair chromatographic mobile phase and fluorescence detection. The chromatographic system allows resolution and quantitation of temafloxacin's oxidative metabolites, which collectively account for less than 2% of the administered dose. The mean intra-assay coefficient of variation for determination of temafloxacin concentrations in plasma ranging from 0.05 to 10.0 micrograms/ml was 0.7%. The procedure was implemented at four laboratories for the analysis of over 12,000 samples from clinical studies. Inter-assay coefficients of variation estimated from routine analyses of quality control samples in these studies averaged 4% or lower for concentrations in the 0.15-10 micrograms/ml range. The limit of quantitation of the procedure is approximately 10 ng/ml; inter-assay coefficients of variation at 15 ng/ml averaged under 9%. Calibration curves were reproducible and highly linear, with correlation coefficients typically averaging over 0.9995. An alternative, more complex procedure, involving methylene chloride extraction, which extends the detection limits to below 1 ng/ml, is also described.