A NOVEL HYDROGEL FORMULATION COMPRISING DEXAMETHASONE AND METRONIDAZOLE FOR THE EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OF ORAL MUCOSITIS IN CANCER PATIENTS

Oral mucositis refers to erythematous and ulcerative lesions of the oral mucosa observed in patients with cancer being treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Because of insufficient detection methods, cancer become one of the health problem, it is mainly caused by both internal and external factors like inherited mutations, hormonal imbalance, metabolic mutations, tobacco, radiation, chemicals etc1.Various new drug designing techniques are used for diagnosis and cure. In recent years, the era of computer aided drug design has widely helpful to enhance our understanding of complex biological process and protein ligand interactions. Lesions of oral mucositis are often very painful and compromise nutrition and oral hygiene as well as increase risk for local and systemic infection. At the institute of pain and palliative Medicine, Medical College,Malabar area in Kerala. The patients who are suffering from oral mucositis are treated with an extemporaneous preparation for the past 7 years. It?s a liquid mixture of dexamethasone and metronidazole tablets which are applied over the painful oral mucositis by grinding the tablets using mortar and pestle and then by mixing with glycerin and multivitamin syrup. But the present challenge is the absence of an appropriate formulation. When applied in the powder form patients are having difficulty in ingesting food. So this study is to convert an extemporaneous preparation „gudallurmix? into a gel formulation,in order to improve the ease of administration, increase patient acceptability and to reduce the pain and discomforts of the patients. So, this formulation may prove to be a boon to a population who suffer a lot of pain in their lives.