APPROACHES FOR GASTRORETENTIVE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS-A REVIEW

Abstract

A review. The purpose of writing this review on gastro retentive drug delivery systems was to compile the recent literature with special focus on floating drug delivery systems (FDDS) to achieve gastric retention. FDDS are of particular interest for drugs that are locally active and have narrow absorption window in stomach or upper small intestine, unstable in the intestinal or colonic environment, and exhibit low soly. at high pH value. It is known that differences in gastric physiol. (such as, gastric pH, motility) exhibit both intra as well as inter subject variability demonstrating significant impact on gastric retention time and drug delivery behavior.Thus, gastroretention helps to increase the gastric residence time and improve absorption of drugs with narrow absorption window. The recent developments of FDDS including the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic aspects affecting gastric retention, approaches to design single-unit and multiple- unit floating systems, advantages and limitations over the conventional drug delivery systems, and their classification and formulation aspects are covered in detail. This review also summarizes the studies to evaluate the performance and application of floating systems, and applications of these systems. [on SciFinder(R)]