Medicine Manipulation for Paediatric Use: Dispersible aspirin tablets and dose uniformity.

Abstract

Concerns about uniformity and the accuracy of the doses resulting from tablet manipulation have previously been reported.  When aspirin is required to treat children, an oral liquid is not readily available, therefore health care providers or parents are required to manipulate aspirin tablets to produce the appropriate dose. In this work, aspirin 75mg dispersible tablets were dispersed in a range of waters (room temperature and warm deionized and tap water and sparkling water) and the dose accuracy was measured. The impact of temperature on the dose accuracy for the tap water was less pronounced yet there was overall lower accuracy compared to the deionised water. Dispersion of the tablet in sparkling water does not give an accurate dose.  Heating fluid used in dispersion is practically achievable yet deionized water in the home or a ward is impractical.  Sparkling water should be avoided when dispersing aspirin tablet.  There is a need to evaluate the apparatus and methods used to manipulate medicines for children as both the water used and the tools to undertake the manipulation have significant effects on the accuracy of the dose obtained.

Keywords

paediatric dosing, Dosing accuracy, Dispersion of Aspirin

How to Cite

Lahiq, A. & Batchelor, H. K., (2019) “Medicine Manipulation for Paediatric Use: Dispersible aspirin tablets and dose uniformity.”, British Journal of Pharmacy 4(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5920/bjpharm.623

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Authors

Ahmed Lahiq (University of Birmingham)
Hannah Katharine Batchelor (University of Birmingham)

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

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This article has been peer reviewed.

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