Remdesivir for patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia requiring high oxygen support

Abstract EN

Background: Treatment options for patients with critical Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited.

This study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes associated with remdesivir therapy in patients with COVID-19 who require non-invasive (NIV) ventilation or invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV).

Methods: Data were retrospectively extracted for adults with COVID-19 confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) between August 1, 2020 and January 28, 2021 who received ≥ 48 hours of remdesivir therapy while on NIV or IMV.

Clinical improvement was defined as two-category improvement on an eight-point ordinal severity scale.

Results: A total of 133 individuals were included, of which 114 (85.7%) were on NIV and 19 (14.3%) were on IMV at the time of remdesivir initiation.

The majority of the patients were males (62.4%), and the median age was 56 years.

All the patients received concomitant dexamethasone therapy.

Remdesivir treatment was commenced after a median of 7 days from onset of symptoms and was continued for a median of 5 days.

Clinical improvement within 28 days was achieved in 101 patients (75.9%); among which, 78.1% and 63.2% were subjected to baseline NIV and IMV, respectively.

Among the 11 (8.3%) patients who died of any cause by day 28, 9 (7.9%) and 2 (10.5%) were subjected to baseline NIV and IMV, respectively.

The most frequent adverse events were sinus bradycardia (21, 13.1%) and alanine transaminase increase (18, 11.3%).

Almost all adverse events were classified as Grades 1–3.

Conclusion: The use of remdesivir in combination with systemic corticosteroids is associated with high recovery rates and low all-cause mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who require NIV or IMV.

The results need confirmation from clinical trials of appropriate design and size.