An Alternative Approach to Tablet Splitting and Grinding for Medication Administration

Tablet formulations fail to meet the needs of patients unable to swallow tablets such as pediatric, elderly, and patients that must receive medications via feeding tubes. Our objective was to develop and test a new, simple device (XTEMP-R) and the methodology for converting tablets into a homogeneous suspension for medication administration. We developed a new device comprised of a flexible receptacle, a tight-fitting cap, and a suction cup bottom to convert tablets into liquid preparations. Tuberculosis treatment drugs, TBAJ-876 and TBI-223, were dispersed within the device utilizing water and commonly available suspending vehicles. We investigated the effectiveness of the XTEMP-R device in dispersing tablets. This was accomplished by visual observations, determining the fineness of dispersion, and measuring the total drug recovery from the dispersions in XTEMP-R. We investigated the accuracy and reproducibility of delivering aliquots from these suspensions by determining the dose reproducibility upon suspension and upon redispersion after 24 hours. The effectiveness of the device was also evaluated using commercially available tablets of acetaminophen, amlodipine, glimepiride, metformin, and valsartan. The suspensions were visually uniform without any large particles. The suspensions passed through a #18 sieve confirming that the particles were less than 1000 µm. The average total dose recovery of three suspensions each was determined to be 101.3% and 99.2% for TBI-223 and TBAJ-876, respectively. Reproducibility from aliquots of 2 mL each was 98.9% to 99.7% for three replicates of TBI-223 suspensions, and 102.6% to 103.2% for TBAJ-876 suspensions. Aliquots tested after 24 hours confirmed uniform redispersibility. We have demonstrated that XTEMP-R can be utilized to prepare homogeneous suspensions conveniently and efficiently in less than 10 minutes without any drug loss. Aliquots for partial dose delivery can be withdrawn accurately. These findings demonstrate that XTEMP-R can be used to accurately deliver doses of suspensions for patients who cannot swallow tablets.