ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to prepare and characterize controlled release ketorolac tromethamine microspheres. To achieve this goal, cellulose acetate butyrate microspheres loaded by ketorolac tromethamine were prepared by the emulsion solvent evaporation method. The prepared ketorolac tromethamine microspheres were evaluated for their production yields, particle size distribution, morphology, drug content and drug release characteristics. Thermal Gravimetric Analysis [TGA] were performed on the drug polymer systems in order to shed a light on the possibility of solid state changes of ketorolac tromethamine with CAB. A Box-Behnken design was selected for formulating ketorolac tromethamine microspheres with revolution per minute [X1], drug-polymer ratio [X2] and span 80 percent [X3] as independent variables. Three levels of the independent variables were used which equal to-1, 0 and +1 for the above design. The values of the corresponding variables were 500, 700 and 900 rpm for the machine speed; 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 for drug-polymer ratio; 1%, 1.5% and 2% [w/w] for span 80 percent