Background The number of patients infected by HIV and hepatitis has increased over the years. Some of them have swallowing difficulties that require the placement of nasogastric or gastrostomy tubes. These chronic treatments need high compliance rates to avoid antiviral drug resistance and, eventually, treatment failure.

Purpose To review the existing antiviral drugs literature and develop administration recommendations for patients with swallowing problems.

Materials and Methods Formulations and recommendations were obtained directly from the manufacturers, or by a PubMed search and a search on the Micromedex database, when information was not available. A guide published by SENPE with physicochemical and formulation properties of drugs was also checked.

Results Table 1 shows the results. Extensive administration recommendations were found during literature searches but are not included in the present abstract. There was no information about the administration of adefovir, maraviroc or saquinavir through gastrostomy or nasogastric tube.

Conclusions Treatment compliance is key to ensuring the success of chronic antiviral treatments and it is important to consider special situations, such as swallowing problems. This guide for nasogastric or enteral administration helps clinicians to choose the most appropriate treatment. Further research is needed to determine specific bioavailability data.

No conflict of interest.