Gastroretentive Dosage Forms for Prolonging Gastric Residence Time

Abstract

Recent technological advancements have been made in controlled oral drug delivery systems by overcoming physiological difficulties, such as short gastric residence time and highly variable gastric emptying time. Gastroretentive dosage forms have been designed over the past three decades to overcome these difficulties. Several technical approaches are currently utilised in the prolongation of gastric residence time, including high-density, swelling and expanding, polymeric mucoadhesive, ion-exchange, raft forming, magnetic and floating drug delivery systems, as well as other delayed gastric emptying devices. Gastroretentive drug delivery systems have been shown to have better efficacy in controlling the release rate for drugs with site-specific absorption. In this review, the concepts of gastric emptying and absorption windows, and current technological developments in gastroretentive drug delivery systems are discussed, including their advantages and disadvantages, along with various evaluation techniques and marketed products for gastroretentive drug delivery. Bioadhesive, superporous hydrogel, floating and expanding systems show the most promising potential for achieving the goal of gastroretention. A superporous hydrogel drug delivery system is currently the most reliable, convenient and advantageous technique available that assures prolonged gastric residence time.