FLOATING MICROSPHERE: A NOVEL GASTRORETENTIVE DOSAGE FORM

Pharmacy

Almost drugs are rapidly and completely absorbed form gastrointestinal tract. But some drug having problems like first pass metabolism, low bioavailability, chances of dose dumping, unstability at colonic pH, produced gastric irritation when administered in single unit dosage form or disturbed normal colonic bacterial flora. It creates the need to design safer and effective drug delivery systems. The floating microspheres are one of the most promising multiparticulates drug delivery system which offers numerous applications including targeting site with specificity, maintain concentration at site of interest without untoward effects, controlled release of drug, improve efficacy, reduced toxicity, improve patient compliance and physicochemically stable. They are spherical and characteristically free flowing powder having particle size range is between 1 to 1000 µm. Floating microspheres are administered by filling in hard gelatin capsule. In future by combining various other strategies, microspheres will find the central place in novel drug delivery, particularly in diseased cell sorting, diagnostics, gene & genetic materials. The purpose of this review is to highlights various types of microspheres, different methods of preparation, applications and evaluation parameters of floating microspheres.

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