Pharmacokinetics of Loxoprofen and Cefcapene following a Single Combined Dose in Healthy Volunteers before, during or Immediately after 120-min Enteral Tube Feeding of 400 mL Ensure Liquid®

Many patients in medical and nursing care facilities cannot ingest food orally. The reasons for the difficulty in ingesting food vary and may include decreased swallowing function, decreased cognitive function, and decreased gastrointestinal tract function, which may be ageor disease-related or associated with surgical management. In such patients, the enteral tube feeding method is commonly used for nutritional management, and oral drugs are often administered through a nasogastric tube for enteral tube feeding. Generally, tablets and capsules are administered either in the pulverized form or through a simple suspension method. The Osaka University Dental Hospital(the hospital at which this study took place)manages patients with diseases affecting the oral cavity in particular. Approximately 40% of the inpatients receive nutrition through an enteral tube feeding over the treatment period or as treatment progresses after surgery. In particular, antibiotics and analgesics are administered as part of the surgical management. The administration of many pharmaceutical products, with or without regard to food, is usually documented in package inserts. The pharmacokinetics of investigational drugs are to be investigated in clinical pharmacology studies, with concomitant ingestion of regular food as a prerequisite. However, the pharmacokinetics of drugs administered in patients receiving enteral tube feeding have not been investigated thus far for many drugs. Therefore, this study investigated the pharmacokinetic profiles of drugs commonly used for surgical management when a pharmaceutical product is administered before, during, and after tube feeding(meals)under enteral tube feeding management, using loxoprofen and cefcapene pivoxil hydrochloride fine granules as the test drugs. Loxoprofen is a representative nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory 臨床薬理 Jpn J Clin Pharmacol Ther 2017; 48(6): 185-193 185