Low or High Dose of Dexamethasone in Patients With Respiratory Failure by COVID-19

Summary

After RECOVERY trial publication, low dose (6 mg dexamethasone for 10 days) was recommended as the usual care treatment in hospitalized patients with respiratory failure by COVID-19 needing oxygen therapy. RECOVERY trial showed how the use of dexamethasone 6 mg / day for ten days compared to standard treatment without the use of corticosteroids in hospitalized patients reduced mortality at 28 days (22.9% with dexamethasone vs 25.7% without dexamethasone). In the dexamethasone group, the incidence of mortality was lower than standard treatment in patients with hypoxia and the need for mechanical ventilation (29.3% with dexamethasone vs 41.4% without dexamethasone), in patients admitted to the hospital ward with a need for oxygen therapy (23.3% with dexamethasone vs 26.2% without dexamethasone), but they did not find differences between those admitted patients who did not need oxygen therapy. There are two other studies (DEXA-COVID-19 and CoDEX) where they observed benefits of the use of dexamethasone 20 mg / day 5 days, and 10 mg / day 5 days (total 10 days) in patients admitted for respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and COVID-19. At present, it is unclear what dose of dexamethasone is most beneficial in patients with COVID-19 and respiratory failure.

Timeline

Start

2021-01-15

Primary completion

2021-08-31

Completion

2021-08-31

Publications

• Taboada M, Rodriguez N, Varela PM, Rodriguez MT, Abelleira R, Gonzalez A, Casal A, Diaz Peromingo JA, Lama A, Dominguez MJ, Rabade C, Paez EM, Riveiro V, Pernas H, Beceiro MDC, Caruezo V, Naveira A, Carinena A, Cabaleiro T, Estany-Gestal A, Zarra I, Pose A, Valdes L, Alvarez-Escudero J. Effect of high versus low dose of dexamethasone on clinical worsening in patients hospitalised with moderate or severe COVID-19 pneumonia: an open-label, randomised clinical trial. Eur Respir J. 2022 Aug 4;60(2):2102518. doi: 10.1183/13993003.02518-2021. Print 2022 Aug.

Drugs

Indications