Transdermal delivery provides a leading edge over injectables and oral routes by increasing patient compliance and avoiding first pass metabolism thus increases bioavailability and efficiency of drugs. This route of administration may be particularly significant in infants and children because of their greater surface area to weight ratio. This delivery system is an effective means for introducing drugs into the blood stream by applying a patch to skin. Matrix type transdermal patches remain the most popular as they are easy to manufacture. Ketoprofen is one of the most useful NSAIDs, which require controlled release due to its short biological half-life of 1.5 to 2 h. The drug is widely used in the treatment of many types of inflammatory and arthritic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis also used for frozen painful stiff shoulder, in tendinitis, muscular pain and swelling resulted from trauma. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate transdermal patches of ketoprofen employing various polymers to achieve controlled release in order to minimize adverse effects associated with oral administration.
