Does methylprednisolone affect time to recovery in COVID–19 Pneumonia?

Objective: Current literature has conflicting results on the role of steroids in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. This study aims to evaluate the effects of steroids on clinical recovery, duration of hospitalization, and time needed for the cessation of oxygen treatment. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 between March and May 2020. Patient age, laboratory parameters, clinical stages, radiologic scores, length of hospital stay, and time needed for the cessation of oxygen supplementation were compared. Results: Thirteen patients were treated with steroids, and 12 controls were included in the analysis. Regarding the laboratory parameters, the groups were similar except for lymphocyte percentage (9.8 ± 3.2, 7.0 ± 2.9; p=0.033), which was higher, and D-dimer levels (0.75 (0.60-1.43), 1.57 (0.91-2.29); p=0.047), which were lower in the steroid group on admission. Steroid treatment provided a tendency of decrease in time to cessation of oxygen supplementation (6.23 ± 3.4 vs 7.67 ± 2.1, p=0.217). Conclusion: Although, systemic steroids, started in the subacute period, did not affect the length of hospital stay, they provided a tendency of decrease in the time until the cessation of oxygen supplementation in the subacute period.