Talk:Route of administration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Route of administration article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Medicine (Rated B-Class) This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at the doctor's mess. B This page has been rated as B-Class on the quality assessment scale Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance assessment scale WikiProject Pharmacology (Rated B-Class) Route of administration is part of WikiProject Pharmacology, a project to improve all Pharmacology-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other pharmacology articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome. B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale. High This article has been rated as high-importance for this Project's importance scale.

[edit] I

I have a few problems with the Route of Administration page as written. The page seems to give undue creedence to whether a drug has a local or systemic effect in determining its classification. In reality, Route of Administration is how the drug is introduced to the body. It is irrelavent for classification purposes what it does once it gets there.

Route of Administration is divided into two, not three, main categories. Enteral, which is through the gastrointestinal system, and parenteral, which is everything else. Parenteral is further subdivided into injections, inhalations and topical.

Enteral is through the gastrointestinal system. At one time, enteral was synonymous with "by mouth" because such drugs had to be swallowed. However, in modern times, other drug delivery mechanisms have made it possible to administer a drug orally without the need for the patient to swallow. Sublingual and buccal drugs are not enteral because they do not enter the GI system.

Parenteral is all other delivery mechanisms that do not involve the gastointestinal system. Traditionally, parenteral means "by injection", but again, because of advances in the science, parenteral now includes many other mechanisms of delivery including topical and inhalational.

The following routes of administration are classified as follows:

ENTERAL

Transabdominal Intragastric Feeding Tube - drugs injected or infused through a feeding tube directly into the stomach.

Antacid - under the currect wiki article, this would be classified as topical because it has a local effect.

Enemas and suppositories - how the drug gets into the GI system is not relavent. Contrast would also be enteral.

PARENTERAL

Injections - pretty much all injections or infusions that are not into the GI system are considered parenteral.

Inhalational - drugs that are inhaled. Asthma spray and anesthetic gas are both inhalational.

Topical - Non-invasive application where the drug does not enter the GI system. Includes sublingual, buccal, transdermal, itch creams, tooth drops, eye drops and nasal sprays. It also includes drugs applied vaginally, but not rectally.

[edit] Proposed Merge

Please follow this link to discuss the proposed merge with Drug delivery. Thanks. -- aBSuRDiST -^T J ^C- 23:51, 21 July 2007 (UTC)