ABSTRACT
AIM: To know the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of drug users admitted to a hospital. METHOD: A descriptive-retrospective study. RESULTS: Of the 123 patients admitted to the hospital (a total of 155 admissions), 84,5% of them were admitted through the Emergency Department. Their main age was 33 +/- 6 and the 65,9% were male. The 90,2% were injecting drug users (IDU). The main age of initiation in the use of drugs was 21 years; and the time of addiction ranged from I to 30 years (69 patients remained addicted to drugs for 10 years or more). There were 102 HCV infections and 13 HBV infections, and 50 patients tested positive for at least I serological marker of hepatitis B infection; 65 were HIV positive (all ofthem were IDU) and 61 were coinfected with HCV. 34 patients had AIDS. Infectious diseases were responsible for 105 of the 155 admissions to hospital. In 134 occasions the patients were discharged and 11 died. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the patients were male. The admissions to hospital were mostly due to infectious diseases. The most commonly associated pathologies seen were to be HIV positive and to carry HCV. The outcome of patients was mainly the discharge from hospital, and those who died were all HIV positive.
