10+ years of service
During May, we had a presentation of a prescription for a infant (6 weeks) with a Hemangioma.
A hemangioma (he-man-jee-O-muh) is a birthmark that most commonly appears as a rubbery, bright red nodule of extra blood vessels in the skin.(1) They may or may not needed to be treated and this is dependent upon the Specialist recommendation. There are a number of treatment options but there is nothing readily available in Australia on prescription and this is where Compounding pharmacies can play an important role. For this particular situation the treatment chosen was oral Propranolol (2).
Hemangioma
The particular patient is being treated by a Pediatric specialist that works closely with our compounding pharmacy. The Patient was referred to us after presenting the prescription at a Community Pharmacy and having no success with manually dissolving the tablets into a solution of water.
After a Patient consultation with our compounding pharmacist, an appropriate formulation was created which enabled the suspension to be stable and flavorsome for the infant. Because of the nature of Propranolol, a number of careful steps needed to be followed when considering the formula, concentration and pH. The patients Pediatric specialist was informed throughout the process and make sure that they where confident in the compounded product.
Once the Suspension was finalised and quality checked, the patients Parent collected the medicine and feedback so far has been very positive.
In summary, because of the technical skills of our compounding team in the pharmacy we where about the create a effective product in a circumstance that nothing commercial was available.
If you have any questions about how Compounding Pharmacy can help solve medication challenges, feel free to email or phone us on 1300731755.
References
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemangioma/home/ovc-20202394
- http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1083849-treatment