[Study of the durability of the triple antiretroviral regimens]

Abstract

Background and objective: The evaluation of the effectiveness of triple antiretroviral therapies (TTT) in HIV-infected patients is difficult due to the long duration of these therapies. Our objective was to estimate the treatment's duration until the failure of the triple antiretroviral combination as a subrogated variable of the effectiveness.

Patients and method: Survival time calculation of a triple antiretroviral combination in 356 adult HIV-infected patients (from 1997 to 2001) and study of the influence of both the triple combination type (TC) and the presence or absence of previous antiretroviral treatment (TP).

Results: The survival median time was 21.96 months. There were not statistical differences related to TC (n1 = 241, n2 = 108, p = 0.4916) but to TP (n3 = 106, n4 = 250, p = 0.0460).

Conclusions: The time in which TTT turned out to be effective seems to be short. It could explain the variety of TTT employed in clinical practice.