A patient with severe burns receives a lipophilic drug. If edema significantly increases their extracellular fluid volume, which consequence follows?

💡 Explanation

Increased extracellular fluid volume provides more space for the lipophilic drug to distribute into, thereby increasing its volume of distribution, because the drug distributes more into the expanded fluid compartment. Therefore, the volume of distribution increases, rather than the plasma concentration increasing or clearance accelerating, which would happen under different conditions.

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