5
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Beneficial and harmful outcomes of tocilizumab in severe COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

      Preprint

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisher
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          ABSTRACT

          Objectives

          Pending for randomized control trials, the use of tocilizumab (TCZ) in COVID-19 remains controversial. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the effect on clinical outcomes of TCZ to treat severe COVID-19.

          Methods

          From 1 January to 21 August 2020, we searched PubMed (via MEDLINE), Scopus, and medRxiv repository databases for observational studies in any language reporting efficacy and safety of TCZ use in hospitalized adults with COVID-19. Independent and dually data extraction and quality assessment were performed.

          Results

          Of 57 eligible studies, 27 controlled and 30 not. The overall included patients were 8,128: 4,021 treated with TCZ, in addition to standard of care (SOC), and 4,107 only receiving SOC. The pooled mortality was lower in the TCZ-group, with a relative risk (RR) of 0.73 (95%CI 0.57-0.93; p=0.010). TCZ-treated patients were transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) in a higher proportion, but ICU mortality was lower than in the control group. Conversely, a higher proportion of TCZ-treated patients developed secondary infections after TCZ use.

          Conclusions

          TCZ seems beneficial in preventing in-hospital mortality in severe, non-critically ill COVID-19 patients. However, patients receiving TCZ appear to be at higher risk for secondary infections, especially those admitted to ICU.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Contributors
          (View ORCID Profile)
          (View ORCID Profile)
          (View ORCID Profile)
          (View ORCID Profile)
          (View ORCID Profile)
          Journal
          medRxiv
          September 08 2020
          Article
          10.1101/2020.09.05.20188912
          dea4e77b-75c9-4f27-a5f4-46c2603f8309
          © 2020
          History

          Comments

          Comment on this article