Impact of lipoatrophy on patient-reported outcomes in antiretroviral-experienced patients.

Lipoatrophy is a noteworthy adverse effect of antiretroviral therapy. A 2-part literature review was conducted to assess the impact of lipoatrophy in HIV-infected persons: the first reviewed the qualitative studies that reported lipoatrophy data, and the second reviewed the clinical studies that recorded patient-reported outcome end points. This literature review provided considerable evidence that lipoatrophy has a negative impact on the psychosocial well-being and health-related quality of life of HIV-infected persons receiving antiretroviral therapy. However, the patient-reported outcome measures used in clinical studies were not lipoatrophy-specific and had limited ability to show real changes in health status associated with lipoatrophy.