ABSTRACT
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 257 Iontophoresis .................................................................................................................................. 258 Iontophoresis in Drug Delivery ..................................................................................................... 258 Pathways of Iontophoretic Transport ............................................................................................ 258 Electroporation ............................................................................................................................... 259 Liposomes for Dermal and Transdermal Delivery ........................................................................ 259 Transfersomes1 and Analogs — Ultradeformable Vesicles.......................................................... 260 Combined Liposomal and Iontophoretic Delivery ....................................................................... 261 Liposomes and Electroporation ..................................................................................................... 263 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 265 References....................................................................................................................................... 265
Historically, the skin was believed to have evolved as a control barrier to the outward transport ofwater and the inward movement of topically contacting agents [1, 2]. In contrast to this evolutionary standpoint, over the last three decades, the use of intact skin as a potential site for local and continuous systemic administration of drugs has received considerable attention [3, 4]. A transdermal mode of drug delivery offers several advantages over more conventional methods. These include avoidance of problems with enzymatic deactivation during gastrointestinal passage, bypassing the first-pass hepatic metabolism, better patient compliance, and ease of termination in problematic cases [1, 5, 6].
