Antiretroviral drug dosing errors in HIV-infected patients undergoing hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND Several studies have revealed the frequency of antiretroviral (ARV) drug prescription errors. We analyzed highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) prescribing practices for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients undergoing hemodialysis in France. METHODS Prescribed ARV drug doses in our cohort (consisting of all HIV-infected patients who underwent hemodialysis from 1 January 2002 and were prospectively followed up until 1 January 2004) were compared with the recommended doses for patients undergoing hemodialysis. The log-rank test was used to compare the outcomes among different groups of treated patients. RESULTS One hundred seven of the 129 patients in our cohort received a total of 317 ARV drugs, 59% of which were improperly prescribed. The dosing was too low for 18% of the patients and too high for 39% of the patients. Twenty-eight patients (26%) did not receive any of their ARV drugs at the recommended dose. The lowest prescribed dose (8% of the daily recommended dose) was observed with indinavir and zidovudine, and the highest prescribed dose (1000% of the recommended dose) was observed with stavudine. Among patients who received HAART, those who were prescribed an insufficient dose of a protease inhibitor had more-severe HIV disease and worse 2-year survival than did the other patients (mean rate of survival+/-standard deviation, 79.5%+/-7.5% vs. 95.4%+/-2.6%, respectively; P<.02). For dialyzable ARV drugs, the delay between ARV drug receipt by the patients and dialysis sessions was not respected in 9% of cases, and in 73% of cases, it was not known whether the patients took the ARV drugs before or after dialysis sessions. CONCLUSION This is, to our knowledge, the first study to show a significant association between ARV drug prescription errors and survival in patients undergoing dialysis.