Review of the Stability of Photosensitive Medications

Objectives

Identify the photosensitive drugs included in the hospital pharmacotherapeutic guide and search for stability data on the storage, reconstitution, and dilution of these compounds.

Methods

The data were obtained by referencing technical specifications, information provided by drug laboratories, and in some cases, we performed a more extensive bibliographic search (tertiary sources and conference lectures) for each particular medication. We also performed a data search on the PubMed information database (from 2004 to 2009).

The drugs were placed in alphabetical order by brand since the stability of each drug when exposed to light does not depend exclusively on the primary active ingredient. Eight columns describe the principal characteristics of the drugs: brand name, active ingredient, laboratory, storage, reconstitution and dilution conditions, observations, and references.

Results

The listing comprised of 139 of the 1954 photosensitive medicines included in the pharmacotherapeutical guide (Table 1).

Conclusions

The lack of studies published on the stability of photosensitive medications provided the need for an internal review at our hospital.

It is important for drug-producing laboratories to perform photosensitivity tests on their products, with the results presented in the technical specifications in order to provide more accessible and reliable information. We believe that this should be required by law.