A REVIEW OF CRITICAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF FLOATING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Dr. Rama Devi Korni*, Ayesha Basheera, B. Venkata Sai Vardhini, D. Sravya, G. Vinay Varma and K. Lavanya Bai

ABSTRACT

Due to its natural, practical, and economical manufacturing technique, the oral administration of therapeutically active substances is the most commonly used. Despite the availability of other administration routes, oral medicine delivery is still the preferred technique. Even with sustained release systems, oral administration has drawn the greatest research focus because of its versatility in dosage form formulation. The greatest therapeutic efficaciousness of the present generation of controlled-release drug delivery systems is twelve hours. These systems are mostly used for drugs with brief elimination half-lives. Its physiological disadvantages include irregular stomach emptying rates, a brief gastrointestinal transit time, and a limited window for absorption, despite its advantages such as good patient compliance and ease of fabrication. Buoyant systems, one of the approaches of gastroretentive drug delivery system (GRDDS), were developed to achieve this aim. GRDDS are retained in the stomach for a prolonged period, increasing the bioavailability of the drugs. These systems frequently deliver the medication before it enters the absorption window. Medication dose forms that conserve stomach acid can be used for both drugs with localized activity in the stomach and those having solubility lower in pH of the small intestine rather than in the stomach. The hydrodynamically balanced system's dose form can be utilized to deliver analgesics, sedatives, antibiotics, and catecholamines. Buoyant systems are low-density systems that have enough buoyancy to float above the contents of the stomach and stay there for a significant length of time. To prolong the gastro-retention period and reduce fluctuation, the medication is gradually supplied at the appropriate rate as the device floats above the contents of the stomach. In this review article, factors such as the size of the dosage form, the shape of the dosage form, and formulation parameters influence the floating of tablets in gastrointestinal fluids to prolong the medication's half-life and boost its bioavailability.

Keywords: Gastroretentive drug delivery systems, Buoyancy, Factors, Floating lag time, Floating time.