Outcomes of Steroid and Pulse Steroid Therapies in COVID-19 Inpatients  Requiring Oxygen Therapy, Retrospective Case Control Study

DAHUDER Medical Journal, cilt.5, sa.2, ss.47-53, 2025 (Hakemli Dergi)

ackground: A lmted number of studes have been conducted examnng the course of the dsease and

the eectveness of cortcosterod treatments n patents wth severe COVID-19 pneumona requrng oxygen

support. Ths study assessed sterod eectveness n oxygen-dependent COVID-19 patents.

Methods: Included n the study were 670 patents who requred oxygen support durng ther hosptal stay among

the 6,532 Covd-19 patents between 1August 2020 and 1 June 2021. Demographc data, comorbdtes, duraton

of oxygen therapy, length of hosptal stay, cortcosterod treatments (dexamethasone, methylprednsolone)

and pulse cortcosterod treatments (methylprednsolone ≥ 250 mg) were recorded. We analyzed data usng

Statstcal Package for the Socal Scences Program (Verson 16.0. Chcago, SPSS) and appled Shapro-Wlk,

Mann-Whtney U, Kruskal-Walls, and Ch-square tests for statstcal sgncance (p<0.05).

Results: The mean age of the patents was 64±13 (19–95) years, 55% were male, and the mean duraton of

hosptal stay was 9±6 (1–64) days. Dexamethasone, pulse sterods, and low-dose methylprednsolone (<80

mg) were gven to 41%, 13%, and 18% of patents, respectvely. 31.6% requred ICU admsson, and the

overall hosptal mortalty rate was 18.1%. Notably, 83% of deaths occurred wthn the rst week.

Conclusion: Most deaths n oxygen-dependent COVID-19 patents happened wthn 7 days.Whle cortcosterods

ddn’t mpact overall mortalty, dexamethasone seemed to boost dscharge wthout ICU admsson