ABSTRACT

Plastic materials are widely used in medical items, such as solution containers, transfusion sets, transfer tubing, devices, and packaging systems. The physiochemical nature of these materials provides medical products with their necessary, desirable performance characteristics. While an important performance characteristic of plastics used in medical application is chemical inertness, interactions between a plastic material and a contacted pharmaceutical product are well documented. Such interactions may include sorption, the uptake of product components by the plastic material, or leaching, i.e., the release of plastic material components into the product. In the case of leaching, both the identities of the leached substances and their accumulation levels may impact the ultimate utility of the product.