The dosage of medications must often be adjusted for pediatric patients. When drugs are in tablet or capsule form, the dosage may be adjusted by breaking up tablets or removing the drug form capsules but when a capsule contains a liquid, dosage adjustment is difficult. For example, until November 2002, it was quite common for the antihypertensive drug Adalat® to be aspirated into a syringe from the capsule and then administered. We therefore investigated the safety of aspirating the liquid contents of 5 types of capsules into a syringe.
Through giving consultation on patient medication, we discovered that it was not possible to aspirate the contents of Lastet® S25 into a syringe and for this reason decided to study ways of safely administering half of the etopside content (12.5 mg) of Lastet® S25. We found that Lastet® S25 readily disintegrated in hot water (55 °C) and that half of the etopside content could be obtained by stirring the water. This study showed that the direct aspiration of the liquid content of capsules into a syringe for the purpose of dosage adjustment is hazardous and in the case of Lastet® S25, this problem could be solved by dissolving the capsule in hot water, stirring and then taking the liquid into the syringe. This method should be useful for administering less than standard doses of capsule dosage forms to pediatric patients when the capsule contains a liquid.
