Dermatologic clinics
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Extemporaneous compounding has long been a part of dermatology. It has served to produce niche therapies that otherwise would have been poorly treated with available drugs. ⋯ The increasing availability of new pharmaceutical drugs that fill these niches more effectively, coupled with economic and legal concerns over the practice of compounding make it a tradition with an increasingly limited role in dermatology today. It is safe to predict that in the near future, compounding will virtually disappear from dermatology, as it already has from virtually all other medical specialties.
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The delivery of drugs into and through the skin is a recognized and effective means of therapy for dermatologic, regional, and systemic disease. The selection of drug candidates and the rational design of suitable formulations depends upon the biological make-up of the skin's barrier, and the physiochemical interactions between the membrane, the delivery system technology, and the active agent. This article summarizes the state of the art and examines more recent developments that are the subject of considerable research at this time. In addition, the potential to use the skin as a portal for noninvasive clinical chemistry (e.g., for glucose monitoring in diabetics) is discussed.