Objective: In Japan, to prevent an increase in medical expenditure associated with development of super-aging society, the use of generic drugs is being promoted.  To help patients financially and meet their various other needs, generic drugs (e.g., orally disintegrating film formulations) whose dosage forms do not exist for original drugs are manufactured and distributed.  In this study, to evaluate the characteristics of an orally disintegrating film formulation, we performed dissolution, disintegration, and simulated intraoral tests of Amlodin® tablets 2.5 mg, Amlodin® OD tablets 2.5 mg, and Amlodipine OD film 2.5 mg that were manufactured by TEVA-KOWA PHARMA Co., Ltd.
Methods: Dissolution and disintegration tests were performed in line with the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, Sixteenth Edition, and the dose of amlodipine was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography.  During the simulated intraoral test, the tested drugs’ disintegration in purified water and artificial saliva was observed macroscopically, and recorded using a digital camera.
Results: Since the each formulation showed an over 85.0% rate of dissolution 15 min after the initiation of the dissolution test, no difference was found in elution behavior.  Also, in the simulated intraoral test, the film formulation began to disintegrate the earliest (2 and 10 min when using purified water and artificial saliva, respectively) among the tested drugs.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that orally disintegrating film formulations show superior disintegration to uncoated or orally disintegrating tablets, and benefits on taking medicine was observed.

Objective: Along with the globalization of the Japanese economy, the number of international students in Japan has gradually increased.  Under these circumstances, international students to visit pharmacies for self-medication are expected to increase.  Thus, we carried out a questionnaire survey on international students conducting self-medication using non-prescription drugs, and examined its problem.
Method: To clarify the status of self-medication using OTC drugs by students studying abroad, multiple-choice and free description-style questionnaire sheets written in Japanese or English were distributed to 30 international students based in Kobe City.  The sheets were independently completed by the students, excluding those who had difficulty in sufficiently comprehending the questions and required the researcher’s oral explanations for assistance.
Result: While 90.0% of the respondents answered that they occasionally use non-prescription drugs in their own countries, only 60.0% answered that they had experience of purchasing the drugs in Japan.  When purchasing OTC drugs, 15.2% faced instructions printed on their packages.  While 30.0% regarded as important to purchase appropriate drugs in their home countries, only 23.3% sought such advice in Japan.
Conclusion: These results revealed a tendency for international students to purchase OTC drugs following pharmacists’ advice less frequently in Japan than in their home countries despite their literacy difficulties.  In the future, we hope to examine issues such as possible active communication by pharmacists and the drugstore structure, so as to promote self-medication through purchasing drugs at Japanese pharmacies.  As a result, we hope to contribute to making Japanese pharmacies more foreign user-friendly in a real sense.

Objective: For pharmacists to select a suitable auxiliary device for eye drop administration for patients who have difficulty in applying eye drops, the pharmacists need to know the characteristics and level of difficulty of using each device.
Methods: Thus, we compared the characteristics of New Rakuraku Tengan, Rakuraku Tengan III, and an eye-drop self-help device and also conducted a survey involving 40 healthy volunteers on each device’s accessibility and suitability for people with motor disabilities.
Results: New Rakuraku Tengan received the highest score for “usage was able to easily understand” (70.0% of the respondents answered positively) and “suitability for poor-sighted people” (65.0%).  Rakuraku Tengan III received the highest score for the “effectiveness of photos and illustrations in the manual” (77.5%),but was evaluated to be difficult to use.  The eye-drop self-help device received the highest score for “suitability for people with difficulty raising their shoulders and arms” (75.0%).
Results: Thus, we observed the need for pharmacists to have thorough knowledge of the products in order to recommend suitable auxiliary devices for eye drop administration for each patient.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm and cystic kidneys are both common diseases that have been increasingly detected due to the development of medical screening instruments, such as computed tomography and ultrasonography. We occasionally intraoperatively encounter abdominal aortic aneurysms accompanying cystic renal lesions. However, there have been extremely few reports about abdominal aortic aneurysms complicated by cystic renal disease. Large renal cysts or polycystic kidneys are at risk of rupture or intraoperative hemorrhage, and can hinder the surgical treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Therefore, there is a significant need for surgeons to be able to preoperatively determine the potential of an interruption of the procedure, for example, due to a cystic lesion. In this paper, we report a case of a 77-year-old man with abdominal aortic aneurysm who complained of abdominal fullness due to the presence of large cystic lesions in both kidneys. Preoperatively we aspirated 1, 550ml percutaneously from bilateral renal cysts under ultrasonographic guidance, but did not instill sclerosing agents, such as ethanol. Three days after the percutaneous aspiration, surgical treatment of the abdominal aortic aneurysm (5.2cm in diameter), the left common iliac arterial aneurysm and the right common iliac arterial aneurysm (3.0 and 2.6cm in diameter) was performed through a median abdominal incision with a retroperitoneal approach. The arterial prosthesis used was a Y-shaped woven double velour vascular graft. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged 14 days after the vascular reconstruction procedure. Our experience suggests that percutaneous aspiration of large renal cysts that might hinder the surgical procedure for abdominal aortic aneurysm is useful.