COMBINATION OF TOCILIZUMAB AND STEROIDS TO IMPROVE MORTALITY IN PATIENTS WITH SEVERE COVID-19 INFECTION: A SPANISH, MULTICENTER, COHORT STUDY

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.07.20189357v2.full.pdf

During the study period, 506 patients with severe COVID-19 fulfilled inclusion criteria. Among them, 268 were treated with tocilizumab and 238 patients were not. Median time to tocilizumab treatment from onset of symptoms was 11 days (IQR 8-14). Global mortality was 23.7%. Mortality was lower in patients treated with tocilizumab than in controls (16.8% versus 31.5%, HR 0.514 [95CI 0.355-0.744], p<0.001; weighted HR 0.741 [95CI 0.619-0.887], p=0.001). Tocilizumab treatment reduced mortality by 14.7% relative to no tocilizumab treatment (RRR 46.7%). We calculated a number necessary to treat of 7. Among patients treated with steroids, mortality was lower in patients treated with tocilizumab than in those treated with steroids alone (10.9% versus 40.2%, HR 0.511 [95CI 0.352-0.741], p=0.036; weighted HR 0.6 [95CI 0.449-0.804], p<0.001) (Interaction p=0.094). Conclusions: These results show that survival of patients with severe COVID-19 is higher in patients treated with tocilizumab than in those not treated, and that tocilizumab effect adds to that of steroids administered to non-intubated cases with COVID-19 during the first 48 hours of presenting with respiratory failure despite of oxygen therapy. 

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