An Alternative Approach to Tablet Splitting and Grinding for Medication Administration

Area of Science:

• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Drug Delivery Systems
• Patient Compliance

Background:

• Tablet formulations present challenges for patients with swallowing difficulties, such as pediatric and elderly populations, and those requiring medication via feeding tubes.
• Existing methods for administering non-liquid medications to these patient groups can be inefficient or inaccurate.
• There is a need for a simple, reliable device to convert solid oral dosage forms into administrable liquid suspensions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel device, XTEMP-R, for converting tablets into homogeneous suspensions.
• To assess the efficiency, accuracy, and reproducibility of the XTEMP-R device in preparing and dispensing drug suspensions.
• To demonstrate the device's utility with both tuberculosis treatment drugs and common over-the-counter medications.

Main Methods:

• A new device, XTEMP-R, was designed, featuring a flexible receptacle, a tight-fitting cap, and a suction cup base.
• Tablets (Tuberculosis drugs TBAJ-876, TBI-223, and common medications like acetaminophen, amlodipine, metformin) were dispersed in the device using water and suspending agents.
• Effectiveness was assessed through visual inspection, particle size analysis (sieve test), total drug recovery, and dose reproducibility of aliquots, including redispersion after 24 hours.

Main Results:

• XTEMP-R successfully created visually uniform suspensions without large particles, passing a #18 sieve (<1000 µm).
• Average total drug recovery was high (99.2% for TBAJ-876, 101.3% for TBI-223).
• Dose reproducibility for 2 mL aliquots was excellent (98.9%-99.7% for TBI-223, 102.6%-103.2% for TBAJ-876), with uniform redispersion after 24 hours.

Conclusions:

• The XTEMP-R device provides a convenient and efficient method for preparing homogeneous drug suspensions in under 10 minutes with no drug loss.
• Accurate withdrawal of partial doses from the suspensions is feasible.
• XTEMP-R is a viable tool for accurate medication delivery to patients who cannot swallow tablets.