Steroids in acute respiratory distress syndrome: A panacea or still a puzzle?

Table 2 Comparison of studies of steroids in coronavirus disease 2019 acute respiratory distress syndrome

Ref.	Acronym/Abbreviation	Country, number of participating sites	Number of patients	Type of patient population	Severity of ARDS	Intervention group	Control group	Primary outcome	Remarks
Tomazini et al[15], 2020	CoDEX	Brazil, 41	299	Adults with COVID-19 ARDS on mechanical ventilation	Moderate-to- severe	Standard care plus IV Dexamethasone 20 mg once daily for 5 d followed by 10 mg once daily for 5 d or until ICU discharge, whichever occurred first	Standard care	VFD at 28 d	Open-label trial with no blinding leading to high number of patients in control group receiving corticosteroids

ARDS: Acute respiratory distress syndrome; COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; VFD: Ventilator-free days; ICU: Intensive care unit.