Abstract Introduction: The vast majority (65 % to 70 %) of all medicines are solid oral dosage forms. Overall, the advantages of tablet stability problems are rare; however, one major point for adequate efficacy is often not considered: which is the ability to swallow them. Therefore, manipulation of tablets for patients with swallowing difficulties may lead to medications errors and potential changes in drugs efficacy.
Aim: To measure the availability and stability of crushed Warfarin tablet in different solutions and the impact of crushing practice.
Method: Warfarin tablets were crushed using mortar and pestle and analyzed by using British Pharmacopeia Spectrophotometric to measure the content, dissolution and stability of the tablets in water, orange juice and syrup at different time intervals.
Results: The content of Warfarin after 4, 24 and 48 hours was not decreased by more than 5% except in orange juice which decreased by 12% which revealed the stability of crushed tablet in these solvent. The release of Warfarin sodium was more in water than orange juice and syrup as it was 85.5% compared to 46% and 44% in orange juice and syrup respectively.
Conclusion: Prior to this study, no information was available regarding the stability of Warfarin tablets when crushed and dispersed in assorted oral delivery vehicles. Crushed tablets dissolved in water and syrup and kept in a refrigerator are stable for 24 hours. This study demonstrated that the ability to deliver the expected dose of Warfarin is negatively impacted by such practices and patients may face serious clinical problems. However, further study is needed to measure the efficacy of crushed Warfarin by following INR of patients taking Warfarin through NG-tube.
Keywords Warfarin tablets, Stability.