2024/11/14 by Dangiwa, Dauda A., Yenwul, Dachen D., Adeniji, Emmanuel A. +3
#Compounding #dosage forms #essential medicines #extemporaneous medicines #packaging
paper · doi:10.60787/wajp.vol35no2.351
Background: Some essential medicines are not readily available in the required dosage forms. The availability of extemporaneous preparations is crucial in the provision of medical care to patients, especially the geriatrics and paediatrics. Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of extemporaneous compounding of medicines and the factors affecting patients' access to extemporaneously compounded essential medicines in some tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. Methods: A retrospective survey was carried out at three different tertiary health facilities, Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BHUTH) Jos, and University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. Medicines for oral use compounded from January 2019 to December 2021 were extracted from pharmacy records using a semi-structured questionnaire and the data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2013, IBM SPSS version 21. Results: About 1,140 of the extemporaneous products, were in liquid dosage form made with trituration using crushed tablets. The most frequent preparations were hydroxyurea (34.39 %), Frusemide (8.86%), lamotrigene (7.54 %), phenobarbitone (6.14 %), clonazepam (5.61 %), spironolactone (5.96%). The most compounded therapeutic class was Antihypertensives, anticonvulsants, vitamins/minerals and least was antihistamines. The value for affordability of the compounded medicines in UNTH, JUTH and BhUTH was less than 1.0, which implies that all the compounded medicines were affordable. Conclusion: Extemporaneous compounding is a common practice in the health facilities under consideration. Patients' access to these medicines is affected by the price of the preparations. A higher price reduces accessibility.