Background Dolutegravir has been marketed in Spain since last year. It is indicated, in combination with other antiretroviral medicinal products, for the treatment of HIV infected adults and adolescents >12 years of age. Due to its recent approval, it seems appropriate to describe our clinical experience.

Purpose To evaluate the use of dolutegravir in patients with HIV infection treated in a tertiary hospital.

Material and methods Observational retrospective study of all patients who started therapy with dolutegravir in our centre since its introduction in January 2015 until June 2015. Data were collected from electronic clinical history and the hospital’s electronic prescribing software. The following variables were collected: sex, age, type of patient (naive, virological failure, switch strategies), and viral load (VL) pretreatment and after 4, 12 and 24 weeks.

Results 25 patients received dolutegravir, 68% male, mean age 43.5 (21–57) years. In 15 patients dolutegravir was associated with emtricitabine plus tenofovir, and in 9 with lamivudine plus abacavir. 5 (20%) were treatment naïve patients, 9 (36%) were virologic treatment failures and 11 (44%) had switched strategies. Indications for switching were: 45.5% for management of potential drug interactions, 27.3% for preventions/correct of lipid elevation, 18.2% to avoid side effects and 9% for pill burden. During the first 12 weeks, no patient discontinued treatment with dolutegravir. Before 4 weeks of treatment, 48% had VL <50 copies/ml and after 12 weeks 64% were virologically suppressed, 16% had VL 50–100 copies/ml and in 20% VL was not available.

Conclusion Dolutegravir was used primarily as a strategy for simplification to avoid drug interactions and to improve/prevent antiretroviral toxicity. Most patients had undetectable VL after 12 weeks, and treatment was well tolerated.

No conflict of interest.