Emergency department utilization by HIV-positive adults in a Belgian setting

The use of the emergency department (ED) by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults undergoes an evolution following the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Improving our knowledge about ED use characteristics will contribute to a correct diagnosis and therapeutic approach in th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRevue médicale de Liège Vol. 74; no. 1; p. 28
Main Authors Pirotte, B, Frippiat, F, Darcis, G, Rassenfosse, M, Fombellida, K, Maes, N, Moerman, F, Moutschen, M
Format Journal Article
LanguageFrench
Published Belgium 01.01.2019
Subjects
Emergency department
HIV
Antiretroviral therapy
Therapeutic coverage
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Summary:The use of the emergency department (ED) by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults undergoes an evolution following the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Improving our knowledge about ED use characteristics will contribute to a correct diagnosis and therapeutic approach in this patient group, at the moment they are discharged from the ED. We conducted a one-year retrospective study on characteristics of ED use involving 1026 patients living with HIV. The majority of them was treated with antiretroviral therapy (95 %) and had a viral load lower than 50 copies (73.6 %). Among them, 117 patients (11.8 %) were admitted at least once to the ED. The most common ED discharge diagnoses were related to trauma (30 %). This study shows that the great majority of diagnoses were not related to infectious diseases (6.3 %, of which half were HIV-related). One hypothesis to explain these results would be that HIV-positive adults in this study had excellent antiretroviral coverage and were well controlled in terms of HIV.
ISSN:0370-629X