Background Current guidelines (GESIDA/PNS-2012) for antiretroviral therapy (ART) in adults recommend the combination of 3 drugs for the treatment of chronic HIV infection.

Purpose To analyse the ART in adult HIV- infected patients monitored in our hospital.

Materials and Methods A retrospective and descriptive analysis was conducted at the Outpatient Hospital Pharmacy studying the types of ART in HIV adult patients treated on 1 January 2012. Dates were obtained from the electronic outpatient database.

Results 1226 patients were receiving ART. The type of therapy was: monotherapy in 40 patients (3.3%), dual therapy in 37 (3%), triple in 1107 (90.3%), quadruple in 32 (2.6%), quintuple in 7 (0.5%), sixfold in 2 (0.2%) and sevenfold in 1 (0.08%). 156 different treatments were observed with 22 drugs. The most common ART combinations were 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) plus a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) in 585 patients (47.7%), followed by 2 NRTIs plus a protease inhibitor (PI) in 345 (28.1%) and 3 NRTIs in 75 (6.1%). 43.2% (530) received PI therapy and, mainly, boosted.

The combinations tenofovir-emtricitabine or lamivudine-efavirenz were the most frequently prescribed in 358 patients (29.2%), followed by abacavir-lamivudine-efavirenz in 89 (7.3%), tenofovir-emtricitabine-lopinavir-ritonavir in 80 (6.6%), tenofovir-emtricitabine-darunavir-ritonavir in 74 (6%) and abacavir-lamivudine-zidovudine in 72 (5.9%).

All patients received oral treatment and 3 of them subcutaneous treatment with the T-20 fusion inhibitor. 621 patients (50.7%) received once-daily treatment (49.3%), 604 twice-daily and one patient three doses daily. Regarding the number of dosage forms, 337 (27.5%) patients were taking one, 273 (22.3%) five, 238 (19.4%) three, 77 (14.4%) were taking two.

Conclusions On January 2012, 76% of our hospital HIV patients treated with ART were taking triple combinations of 2 NRTIs + 1 NNRTI or 1 PI.

All patients except one received once or twice daily treatment and 42% took 1 or 2 dosage forms/day.

No conflict of interest.