Message Number: YG717 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Pam Sessoms
Date: 2001-03-05 08:27:00 UTC
Subject: Suspending Carafate (was Re: Digest Number 35)

Regarding mixing carafate tablets up in water to make a liquid
suspension...

On Mon, 5 Mar 2001 Rbossart@a... wrote:
>
> We make a suspension by crushing the pill and mixing it
> with water. It doesn't dissolve so you have to shake it well before
> drawing it up in a syringe.

A trick I picked up on the FML or apf or somewhere is that Carafate
tablets, for some mysterious reason, suspend much better if you don't
crush them before adding the water. Weird but true!! I put one tab (1
gram) in my container (those brown glass bottles from the vitamin
supplement Ferret Drops work great) and add 10 cc's of water, shake it
briefly, and it's like milk except for a couple of very small fragments
left at the bottom. This makes the suspension the same strength as the
commercial carafate liquid suspension... (1 g/ 10 mL) It settles out fast
and needs to be shaken before being drawn up in a syringe.

If anyone knows the deep, scientific reason for why the tabs blend better
without being crushed, I'd love to know. It's one of those things that
I've chalked up to "mysteries of the universe." *g*

And thanks to Dr. Williams' earlier post on compounding meds, I'm extra
careful to not make more than I can use in 10 days or so since it's being
mixed with water!

Cheers,

-Pam S.