Hospital Compounding in Nigeria: A Review of Needs, Practice, and Suggestions for Pharmaceutical Dispensing...

Dispensing remains a key component of the pharmacy undergraduate curriculum, teaching skills in the individualized preparation of medicines. In hospitals, pharmacists compound medicines to improve access for patients who would otherwise not have the medicine in the suitable formulation. Current trends suggest that the dispensing curriculum needs to be improved to include topics that will equip students with skills and competences in hospital compounding. The objective of this review was to describe compounding needs and practices in hospitals in Nigeria with a view to curriculum development. Four studies were retrieved that show that compounding was for magistral preparations or products prepared from other existing products. Most of the compounded medicines were oral liquids for use in pediatric patients. The majority of compounded medicines were in three therapeutic groups: 1) cardiovascular, 2) antimicrobials, and 3) vitamins. These were commonly prepared by crushing tablets or emptying capsules into compounding vehicles such as distilled water, vitamin C, or vitamin B-complex syrups. Being magistral, these are not included in the curriculum by default, as the curriculum focuses on officinal preparations. Expanded training to include a module incorporating protocols for the preparation and quality and stability testing for these compounded medicines advances the practice of dispensing and is urgently needed.