A single-center experience of steroid therapy for COVID-19 management

Aim: There is an emerging role of steroids in the management of COVID-19. We aimed to compare the outcome of COVID-19 patients (recovery versus mortality) who were treated with steroids with those who were not treated with steroids during their course of hospital stay. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all moderately to severely ill COVID-19 patients, meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, admitted to our center during the study period of four months, was performed. The patients were categorized into two groups: Group I included 25 patients who were given steroids, and Group II also included 25 patients who were not given any steroids during their hospital stay. The primary outcome (recovery versus mortality), length of hospital stay as well as other features were compared between the two groups. Results: The mean length of hospital stay was 9.3 days in the steroids group and 10.9 days in the non-steroids group with a p value of 0.249. None of the patients was shifted to a ventilator in either group. One patient in the steroids group (4%) and two patients in the non-steroids group (8%) needed to be put on high flow nasal cannula. One patient died in the steroids group with a recovery rate of 96%, while two patients died in the non-steroids group with a recovery rate of 92% (p value 0.552). Conclusion: Treatment with steroids in moderately to severely ill COVID-19 patients did not decrease the length of hospital stay or mortality in our study.