The aim of this study was to assess the pharmacokinetic profile of pancopride after repeated oral dose administration of 20 mg pancopride in tablet form once a day for 5 d in 12 healthy male volunteers. Plasma levels were measured by HPLC using a solid phase extraction method and automated injection. The minimum quantification limit of pancopride in plasma was 2 ng mL-1. The maximum plasma concentration (mean +/- SD) after the first dose was 92.5 +/- 41.5 ng ML-1 and tmax was 1.7 +/- 0.9 h. The elimination half-life (t1/2) was 14.3 +/- 6.9 h. The area under the concentration-time curve from zero to infinity (AUC) was 997 +/- 396 ng h mL-1. The maximum plasma concentration (mean +/- SD) at steady state (day 5) was 101.8 +/- 36.9 ng mL-1 and tmax was 2.2 +/- 1.2 h. The elimination half-life (t1/2) was 16.3 +/- 2.7 h and the minimum plasma concentration (Cssmin) was 16.6 +/- 6.9 ng mL-1. The area under the concentration-time curve during the dosing interval (AUCss tau) was 995 +/- 389 ng h mL-1. The average plasma concentration at steady state (Cssav) was 43.3 +/- 16.1 ng mL-1 and the experimental accumulation ratio (RAUC) was 1.34 +/- 0.19, whereas the mean theoretical value (R) was 1.40 +/- 0.29. The results obtained showed a good correlation between the experimental plasma levels and the expected values calculated using a repeated dose two-compartment model assessed by means of the Akaike value. It is concluded that the pharmacokinetics of pancopride are not modified after repeated dose administration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)