A REVIEW ON GASTRO-RETENTIVE FLOATING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Ganesh N.S., Kelvin Bucktowar* and Vineeth Chandy

ABSTRACT

In the recent years, the oral route has been used widely for the delivery of therapeutic medication due to the convenient cost of the therapy and ease of administration. This has led to high levels of patient compliance. More than half of the drug delivery systems which is available in the market are oral drug delivery systems. Gastro-retentive drug delivery systems or Floating systems or Hydrodynamically controlled systems are low-density systems that have sufficient buoyancy to float over the gastric contents. Moreover, these drug delivery systems tend to keep afloat in the stomach without disturbing the gastric emptying rate for a long period of time. The drug is released at a steady rate from the system while the latter is floating on the gastric juices. The residual system is emptied from the stomach immediately after the drug is released. There is a better control of the fluctuations (irregular rising and falling in number) in plasma drug concentration due to an increased Gastric Residence Time (GRT). Furthermore, a minimal gastric content is required to allow the proper achievement of the buoyancy retention along with a minimal level of the floating force (F) so that the dosage form is kept buoyant/floating on the surface of the meal. There have been several buoyant systems that have been developed based on granules, powders, tablets, capsules, laminated films and hollow microspheres.

Keywords: Gastro-retentive, Floating systems, Hydrodynamically, Gastric Residence Time, Stomach.