I HAD AN HIV TEST FOR A KNEE OPERATION & IT CAME OUT INDETERMINATE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? I HAVE GOTTEN TESTED SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE & MY HUSBAND & I BOTH CAME OUT NEGATIVE. ALL MY OTHER LAB WORK CAME OUT PERFECT. I WAS ALSO WONDERING IF GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY WOULD NOT BE DONE IF ONE HAS HIV? THANK YOU

I would first say that any operation that is medically indicated can and should be done in any patient, regardless of their HIV infection status.

An indeterminate HIV antibody test usually means that the initial screening ELISA test is positive and the confirmatory test (usually a Western blot test) is neither truly positive nor truly negative. In some cases, this is associated with a recent HIV infection and a subsequent test will be positive. Most of the time, however, this is not indicative of anything, and a repeat test is still indeterminate of has reverted to negative. If it stays indeterminate in follow-up (usually over 3 months or more), you are determined to be HIV negative for medical purposes. The key to really interpreting this result will be in the repeat testing.