Background The compounding laboratory of Ravenna hospital pharmacy produces paediatric preparations prepared individually in response to the lack of preparations for children on the market. In 90% of cases the preparations are for patients at home who often do not have the necessary information about the drug.

Purpose The aim was to write summaries about compounded preparations that provide detailed information, similar to the patient information leaflet accompanying manufactured medicinal products, to be made available to parents of young patients. With this work The authors tried to improve patient compliance and to provide information for the correct use of the drug, its storage, interactions and possible warnings.

Materials and methods Informative summaries were compiled with the help of the technical specifications of drugs and raw materials, BNF for Children, biomedical literature from Medline and Medicamenta. They contain information related to the composition, therapeutic class, as it presents, shelf life, storage, therapeutic indications, how to take it, warnings and possible adverse reactions. The documents are in simple language in order to facilitate the understanding by all patients' parents, who are sometimes foreigners.

Results 52 informative summaries were made about the active ingredients, in different pharmaceutical forms, required in 757 paediatric prescriptions submitted to the laboratory from July 2009 to May 2011. Then telephone interviews were conducted with some of the patients' parents in order to evaluate the usefulness of this work. The authors found that the information most appreciated is that regarding the storage of the drug, how to take it, and, in particular, interactions with non-prescription medicines.

Conclusions Compounding represents a concrete response to the lack of paediatric medicines on the market and hospital pharmacists play an important role in ensuring the patient has full and reliable information.