A rapid, precise and selective method is described for determining the purity of cefuroxime sodium. Cefuroxime is separated from closely related compounds by high-performance liquid chromatography a t ambient temperature using a 10-cm column packed with 5-,urn Spherisorb C6 and buffered aqueous acetonitrile as mobile phase. The eluate is monitored a t 273 nm, orcinol is used as internal standard and the method has a coefficient of variation of 0.6%. The procedure is suitable for the analysis of freshly manufactured cefuroxime sodium and it also provides a reliable estimate of the potency of partly degraded samples from stability tests.

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