Design and Evaluation of The Floating Oral In Situ Gelling System of Levofloxacin Hemihydrate to Dysphagia Patients

Pediatric, geriatric, and dysphagia patients often experience difficulty swallowing solid preparations and discomfort when administered by injection. Levofloxacin is marketed as available in tablet and injection forms, such as in Indonesia. This study aims to develop an aqueous dispersion formulation for a floating oral gelling system of levofloxacin hemihydrate with sustained release delivery. HPMC and sodium alginate were combined as polymers to form an in situ gel system in an acidic environment. The optimization was performed based on the simplex lattice mixture design method. The effect of variations in the concentration of both polymers influenced the viscosity of the formula. The optimum formula was 0.378% sodium alginate and 0.122% HPMC. The drug release mechanism of the optimum formula followed the Korsmeyer-Peppas model. The kinetic mechanism of drug release fits into 2-compartment. The developed formulation offers augmented gastric retention of levofloxacin hemihydrate, leading to improved efficacy.