Objective: To analyze the impact of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) on the admissions and mortality of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and of all patients cared in an Internal Medicine Department.
Methods: A retrospective study with analysis of admissions and deaths in the Internal Medicine Department of a third-level care hospital between January 1996 and December 2000. HAART was introduced starting in 1997. Age, gender, main diagnosis at discharge, diagnosis related group (DRG) weight, death cause, and hospital stay were assessed globally and annually.
Results: During the study period 7,580 admissions took place, of which 939 were secondary to HIV infection related diseases. The incidence of HIV-related admissions declined in 32.9% and the case-fatality rate in 67.8% between 1996 and 2000, with increase at the same time of the number of patients with noninfectious respiratory pathology and of overall number of patients with infections. Average hospital stay of patients cared in the Internal Medicine Department remained stable, with reduction of 31.5% of that of the group with HIV infection starting in 1997. DRG complexity in this group decreased 0.56 points.
Conclusions: The introduction of HAART has been associated to a reduction in the incidence of admissions, in the complexity of the diagnoses, and in the mortality in the group of patients with HIV infection. At the same time there was an increased in the number of patients with respiratory and infectious pathology different from that related to HIV.