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Types Of Gel Drug Administration

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GELS Pharmaceutical products can be divided into 3 categories: solids, liquids and semi-solids. One of the most prominent products in semi-solids category is gel. Pharmaceutical gels are semi-solid systems in which there is interaction (physical or covalent), between colloidal particles within a liquid vehicle. The vehicle, either aqueous, hydroalcoholic, alcohol-based or non-aqueous is continuous and interacts with the colloidal particles within the 3D network. Gel drug administration can be done through optic, rectal, vagina and skin as topical routes. There are 4 main types of gels. Firstly, organogel. Sorbitan monostearate, a quantity of organic solvents and vegetable oils are present in this gel. Gelation is performed by dissolving the organogelator in high temperature solvent to produce an organic solution placed on cooling sets to become gel. Additives such as hydrophilic surfactant and polysorbate 20 are added to organogels to improve its stability and modify the gel microstructure from a network of individual tubules to star-shaped "clusters" of tubules in the liquid continuous phase. Secondly, hydrogel. It consists of a network of hydrophilic polymer chains or gel which has water as its medium of dispersion. This gel is very absorbent and has high level of flexibility. Hydrogel has the most applications such as in tissue engineering, it is used as scaffolds, in sustained release drug delivery system, provide absorption and debriding and as medical electrode

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