Intravenous Administration: Technological Considerations

Abstract

Dosage forms are pharmaceutical finished products, containing one or more active ingredients (drug), in a specified dose, and several inactive ingredients or excipients. When given to the patient by an adequate route of administration, the drug reaches its site of action and exerts its pharmacological action. Intravenous dosage forms, in particular, are intended to be applied directly on a patient’s vein. Parenteral routes of drug administration are, in a broad sense and by the meaning of the words, those that deliver a drug avoiding its passage through the gastrointestinal system. Nowadays, however, the term parenteral is reserved for the drug administration by injection (or infusion) directly into a vessel (i.e., a vein or an artery), an organ, a tissue, or a body compartment. Therefore, there are many different parenteral routes, as many as vessels, organs, tissues, or compartments the body possesses. Parenteral administration is performed through the skin, so it requires a needle and an invasive procedure that allow the pharmaceutical product to be injected into the body, in the corresponding reservoir. Due to their invasive nature, these routes of administration present certain general risks, like an increased probability of infections, thrombosis or tissue damage derived from administration, pain, fear, and/or rejection by the patients.Active ingredients are rarely administered in their natural or pure state; rather they are often combined with other components to form what we know as drugs or dosage forms.