Variation in hospital indicators in HIV patients in HAART era

The new antiretroviral therapy (ART) provides a manifest clinical bettermen t with reduction of opportunistic infections and other human immunodeficien cy virus (HIV) complications. Our aim is to assess the impact of ART on the pattern of HIV hospitalization. This is a retrospective study of all the H IV hospitalization at a general hospital between 1994-1998. The main outcom e measures were number of HIV admissions, hospitalization days (HD), and ho spital mortality (HM). The number of admissions/HD were 40/494, 86/1111, 11 7/1209, 103/1205 and 73/873 patients/days in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 199 8 respectively. The HM was 12,5% in 1994, 11,6% in 1995, 6,8% in 1996, 4,8% in 1997 and 5,4% in 1998. In conclusion a significant reduction on admissi ons, HD, and HM in HIV patients has been observed, apparently due to the wi despread use of new ART.