Removal of benzyl alcohol from a commercially available triamcinolone acetonide suspension for intravitreal use

Purification of commercially available formulations of triamcinolone acetonide is important to avoid potential toxic effects of the vehicle for intravitreal use. In 2004, a simple and rapid method to remove most of the vehicle with a centrifuge was reported. The aim of this article is to study the degree to which benzyl alcohol can be eliminated with this method. By means of a gas chromatographic procedure, it has been proven that centrifugation is suitable for removing most benzyl alcohol (ie, up to 95.5% at 10,000 rpm, 5 minutes), and it is better at modifying the concentration of the drug than other proposed methods (ie, decantation, filtering methods, or both).