Efficacy of tocilizumab in patients with severe COVID-19: Survival and clinical outcomes

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is associated with a severe inflammatory response contributing to respiratory and systemic manifestations, morbidity, and mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). Methods: Tocilizumab (TCZ) efficacy on mortality and length of hospital stay was retrospectively evaluated in patients who received TCZ and compared with that in controls with a similar severity of COVID-19. The primary endpoint was survival probability on day 28. The secondary endpoints included survival at day 14 and length of hospital stay. Results: Of the 148 patients included in the study, 62 received TCZ and standard of care, whereas 86 served as a control group and received only standard of care. The two groups were similar, although TCZ-treated patients were more likely to exhibit hypertension (46.7% vs. 29.8%), chronic kidney disease (14.5% vs. 1.1%), and high Charlson score (1.18 vs. 1.00; p = 0.006) and less likely to receive corticosteroid treatment (48.5% vs. 93.0%). TCZ was associated with lower mortality on both day 28 (16.1% vs. 37.2%, p = 0.004) and day 14 (9.7% vs. 24.4%, p = 0.022). The hospital stay was longer in the TCZ-treated than in the control group (15.6 +/- 7.59 vs.17.7 +/- 7.8 days, p = 0.103). Ten patients (16.0%) in the TCZ-treated group developed infections. Conclusion: TCZ was associated with a lower likelihood of death despite resulting in higher infection rates and a non-significant longer hospital stay. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study found that treatment with tocilizumab (TCZ) was associated with a lower likelihood of death in COVID-19 patients, despite potentially higher infection rates and a slightly longer hospital stay.