Abstract
There are many technique delivering a therapeutic substance to the target site in a sustained or controlled release fashion In recent years scientific and technological advancements have been made in the research and development of rate-controlled oral drug delivery systems by overcoming physiological adversities, such as short gastric residence times (GRT) and unpredictable gastric emptying times (GET). Several approaches are currently utilized in the prolongation of the GRT, including floating drug delivery systems (FDDS), also known as hydro dynamically balanced systems (HBS), Gatsroretentive drug delivery system offers several advantages besides providing better bioavailability to poorly absorbed drugs and a required release profile thus attracting interest of pharmaceutical formulation scientists. A large number of marketed formulations are formulated as gastro retentive dosage forms. Floating microspheres is one among the several approaches to gastro retention, like mucoadhesion, flotation, sedimentation, expansion, modified shape systems etc. These systems are useful in overriding the several problems encountered during the development of a pharmaceutical dosage forms. The intention of this review is to focal point on the recent advances in the field of preparation, characterization, evaluation and applications of floating microspheres in the area of gastro retentive dosage forms. The review also highlights the advantages with reference to the multi-particulate systems, as well as provides an overview of the future prospective that can take place in this area.
Key words: Gastro-retention, FDDS, floating microspheres, multi-particulates