Hospitalization parameters in patients infected with HIV: an analysis of the period 1992-1997

The course of several hospitalization parameters of HIV-infected patients in a general hospital during the past 6 years was analyzed. There was a decrease observed in the number of non-AIDS diagnosed patients admitted during the observation period, but this decrement was noted only in the past 2 years in AIDS patients. This decline was not accounted for by a decrease in the incidence of AIDS patients seen each year, and was very probably due to the efficacy of antiretroviral combination therapy. The average length of stay of both AIDS and non-AIDS diagnosed patients decreased markedly during the first 3 years to stabilize during the remaining observation period. An analysis of the mode in which the patients were seen for the first time in the hospital (admitted from the emergency department because of complications of advanced HIV infection or attended in the outpatient clinic) revealed that, after a steady decrease from 1985 to 1995 in the relative proportion of patients hospitalized (p < 0.0001), there was an inversion of the downward trend in the past two years (p = 0.04). Most of the patients admitted during these 2 years were persons who did not know that they were infected with HIV. This observation reinforces the need for education campaigns and voluntary HIV testing which are particularly directed toward persons with high risk factors for the infection, in order to provide medical care before complications of advanced HIV infection appear.