Development and Characterization of Transdermal Patches of Tramadol Hydrochloride: An Approach to Pain Management

Transdermal drug delivery leads direct access to the systemic circulation through the skin which bypass drug from the hepatic first pass metabolism leading to increase bioavailability. Because Tramadol hydrochloride has low bioavailability, it was selected as a model drug. The present study was aimed to develop and characterize transdermal patches of Tramadol hydrochloride by solvent casting method. Two polymers Ethyl cellulose (EC) and Poly vinyl pyrrrolidine (PVP) in different combination or alone were used to form matrix system. Dibutylpthlate and Glycerine were incorporated as plasticizers. All the patches were characterized for parameters like Thickness, Weight variation, Drug content uniformity, Tensile strength, % elongation, folding endurance, moister content, In-vitro drug permeation study etc. Amongst all formulations, formulation F6 had more desirable characteristic & shows 82.82% drug permeation in 10 hr. Release kinetic can be described by Higuchi model with anomalous diffusion as a release mechanism. The Transdermal patch formulated from Ethyl Cellulose (EC) and PVP showed satisfactory physicochemical properties. So, it can be concluded that such a matrix type patches of Ethyl Cellulose (EC) and PVP could be a good carrier in transdermal delivery of Tramadol HCl. FTIR studies showed there were no incompatibilities between drug and other excipients.