Key Terms
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API)
What is any substance in a compounded preparation that confers pharmacological activity?
Calibrate
What is to gauge a measuring instrument with a standard scale of reading?
Compounded Sterile Preparation
What is a medication prepared with aseptic technique in a sterile, cleanroom facility?
Excipients
What is inactive ingredients?
Levigation
What is a process usually used to reduce the particle size of a solid during the preparation of an ointment?
Agglomerations
What is clusters, lumps, clumps, or globs of ingredients in a liquid, semiliquid, or powdered vehicle, which are undesired in compounding?
Class III Prescription Balance
What is a two-pan balance used to weigh material (between 120 mg and 120 g) with a sensitivity rating of +/- 6 mg; also known as a Class A prescription balance?
What is the process of preparing a medication for an individual patient from bulk ingredients according to a prescription from a licensed prescriber?
Extemporaneous Compounding
What is compounding products that are done for a specific patient’s immediate need by not for commerically available; another name for nonsterile compounding in a community pharmacy?
Meniscus
What is the moon-shaped or concave appearance of a liquid in a graduated cylinder; used during the volume measurement process, with the center being the accepted level?
Autoclave
What is a device that generates heat and pressure to sterilize objects, instruments, and measuring vessels and devices?
Comminution
What is the act of reducing a substance to small, fine particles using particle-reducing techniques like trituration, levigation, and pulverization?
Compounding Record
What is a printout for a specific patient, including the amounts or weights of all ingredients with national drug code calculations and instructions for compounding; used by the technician to document a compounded medication for a patient?
Forceps
What is a stainless steel pincher instrument like a large tweezer used to pick up small objects, such as pharmacy weights?
Mortar and Pestle
What is equipment used for mixing and grinding pharmaceutical ingredients?
What is the date after which a drug should not be used once it has been removed from the intact container?
Component
What is an ingredient in a compounded product?
Diluent
What is an inactive ingredient that is added to the active drug in compounding a tablet, capsule, solution, or topical formulation?
Geometric Dilution Method
What is a process that uses a mortar and pestle to gradually combine several active ingredients (drugs) with inactive ingredients to produce a more homogenous product?
What is the preparation of a medication from several pharmaceutical ingredients in an appropriate quantity and dosage form in response to a prescription written by a physician; sometimes referred to as extemporaneous compounding?
Blending
What is the act of combining two substances by using nongrinding techniques such as spatulation, sifting, and tumbling?
Compounded Preparation
What is a patient-specific medication prepared on-site from individual ingredients, often by a technician under the direct supervision of the pharmacist?
Emollient
What is an ointment base commercially available from a wholesaler or pharmacy compounding vendor?
Graduated Cylinder
What is a flask used for accurately measuring liquids?
Ointment Slab
What is a flat, hard, nonabsorbent surface used for mixing compounds; also known as a compounding slab?