Awad Atheer, Yao Aliya, Trenfield Sarah J, Goyanes Alvaro, Gaisford Simon, Basit Abdul W
Department of Pharmaceutics, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK.
FabRx Ltd., 3 Romney Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 0RW, UK.
Pharmaceutics. 2020 Feb 19;12(2):172. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12020172.
Visual impairment and blindness affects 285 million people worldwide, resulting in a high public health burden. This study reports, for the first time, the use of three-dimensional (3D) printing to create orally disintegrating printlets (ODPs) suited for patients with visual impairment. Printlets were designed with Braille and Moon patterns on their surface, enabling patients to identify medications when taken out of their original packaging. Printlets with different shapes were fabricated to offer additional information, such as the medication indication or its dosing regimen. Despite the presence of the patterns, the printlets retained their original mechanical properties and dissolution characteristics, wherein all the printlets disintegrated within ~5 s, avoiding the need for water and facilitating self-administration of medications. Moreover, the readability of the printlets was verified by a blind person. Overall, this novel and practical approach should reduce medication errors and improve medication adherence in patients with visual impairment.
视力障碍和失明影响着全球2.85亿人，造成了沉重的公共卫生负担。本研究首次报告了使用三维（3D）打印技术制作适合视力障碍患者的口腔崩解微片（ODP）。微片表面设计有盲文和穆恩点字图案，使患者在从原包装中取出药物时能够识别药物。制作了不同形状的微片以提供额外信息, 如药物适应症或给药方案。尽管有这些图案，微片仍保留了其原有的机械性能和溶解特性，所有微片在约5秒内崩解，无需用水，便于患者自行给药。此外，一名盲人验证了微片的可读性。总体而言，这种新颖实用的方法应能减少视力障碍患者的用药错误并提高用药依从性。
