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 Safely
Customizing Your Medications to
Fit Your Needs....
While pharmaceutical manufacturers prepare a wide variety of
medications, on occasion,
sterile customized medications
are needed to treat ophthalmic conditions. Physicians may
be faced with patients with medical conditions where
treatment solutions are not available in the form of a
commercially manufactured drug product. Some pharmaceuticals
may be available to treat medical conditions in a particular
dosage form, but not as a sterile preparation. Other
treatments may be available in other countries as
manufactured items, but not yet manufactured in the U.S. In
this situation, a customized medication prepared by a
compounding pharmacy
with the capability to prepare
sterile dosage
forms may be a useful resource.
Preparing a sterile ophthalmic preparation requires
specialized equipment and training in aseptic technique.
Considerations in preparing ophthalmic solutions include
tonicity, pH/buffers, sterility, preservatives and viscosity
enhancers. A laminar airflow hood is essential in providing
a sterile environment in preparing customized ophthalmic
preparations. During this procedure, the product must be
sterilized by using standardized methods of aseptic
technique, such as micron filtering and autoclaving, to
ensure quality control.
Working in a sterile hood using aseptic techniques is a
standard procedure at
Medical Center
Pharmacy. Compounding pharmacists
Henry
Herring, Beverly Clark and Diana Regina
have received specialized aseptic training and are available
to prepare customized ophthalmic preparations. Being
affiliated with Professional Compounding Centers of America,
the pharmaceutical staff has access to various ophthalmic
formulas and the expertise of pharmacy consultants. The
staff of
Medical Center Pharmacy
encourages
physicians and patients to consult with them to discuss
sterile customized treatment options. Please give the
pharmacy staff a call for assistance with “problem solving”
sterile drug therapies.
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