[Sense and nonsense of extemporaneous formulations].

The subject of Dermatology has changed significantly in light of the fast development of new therapeutic strategies. Potent systemic agents are no longer confined to the oncological. Nevertheless, topical therapy including extemporaneous formulations remains the domain of dermatologists. Due to the wide range of proprietary medicinal products in this era of evidence-based medicine, the relevance of classic dermatological prescriptions for local therapy is often up for discussion. In 2012, almost 18 million preparations were compounded according to a physician's prescription, which amounts to 2.7 % of all prescribed medications. 10 million of these extemporaneous formulations were used for systemic therapy such as chemotherapy or substitutional therapy, 8 millions were prescribed for topical therapy. This paper addresses the following questions: When is an extemporaneous formulation being called for, which requirements should it meet and which formulations are controversial or even unacceptable?