Neurological Disorders among the Outpatients Living with Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) Following at the Parakou Hospital in 2014

Objective: To study the frequency of neurological disorders associated to HIV infection. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out from 16th June to 16th September 2014 and included all 289 HIV-outpatients admitted to the Parakou University hospital. All data were recorded, physical examination was performed and the medical sheet of each patient was assessed. The diagnosis of neurological disorder (central and peripheral) was based on clinical features, past medical history, biological test and CT-scan data after multidisciplinary staff. Epi-data and Epi-Info 6.04C were used to perform analysis. Results: They were 73 (25.3%) male with a mean age of 38.0 years +/− 10.1 years. The mean duration of disease was 48.5 months +/− 37.1 months. 150 (51.9%) of them were at Stage 3 of the disease. All patients (99.7%) were infected by HIV1, 188 (76.1%) had CD4 cells at the onset of the follow-up less than 350 cells/mm3 and 260 (90.0%) were on ART. Among the 289 patients, 110 had at least one neurological disorder, the frequency of neurological disorders was 38.1%. The main neurological disorders were peripheral neuropathy (34.3%), isolated headache (5.2%), stroke (0.7%), cerebral toxoplasmosis (0.7%) and one case of dementia (0.7%). The main associated factors were the age of patient and exposure on neurotoxic drug, especially ART. Conclusion: The neurological disorders were more frequent among HIV patients with a high frequency of peripheral neuropathy probably due to ART.