Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 6, 2020; 8(23): 5952-5961
Published online Dec 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i23.5952
Effect of methylprednisolone in severe and critical COVID-19: Analysis of 102 cases
Hong-Ming Zhu, Yan Li, Bang-Yi Li, Shuang Yang, Ding Peng, Xiaojiao Yang, Xue-Lian Sun, Mei Zhang
Hong-Ming Zhu, Bang-Yi Li, Shuang Yang, Ding Peng, Mei Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
Yan Li, Department of Pulmonology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
Xiaojiao Yang, School of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H9X 3V9, Canada
Xue-Lian Sun, Department of Emergency Medicine, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijng 100053, China
Author contributions: Zhu HM wrote the paper; Zhang M designed the research; Li Y and Yang S performed the research; Peng D and Yang X performed data and statistical analyses; Peng D and Li BY analyzed the data; Sun XL collected the data.
Institutional review board statement: This survey was a retrospective study collecting only the clinical data of patients. Since it did not bring risks to patients’ physiology and did not interfere with patients’ treatment plan, and researchers protected patients’ information from disclosure, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University agreed to exempt this study from ethical review.
Informed consent statement: The need for individual consent was waived by the committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest regarding the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mei Zhang, MD, Chief Physician, Occupational Physician, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, No. 45 Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China. zhang2955@sina.com
Received: August 28, 2020
Peer-review started: August 28, 2020
First decision: September 29, 2020
Revised: October 3, 2020
Accepted: October 20, 2020
Article in press: October 20, 2020
Published online: December 6, 2020
Processing time: 97 Days and 15.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Glucocorticoids were used in the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome, influenza A, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the past. Many studies believe that glucocorticoids can effectively reduce inflammation caused by viruses. In this study, 102 patients with severe and critical COVID-19 were studied and divided into either a treatment group or a control group according to methylprednisolone use. We found that the difference in mortality between both groups was insignificant (P = 0.655), and the results showed that methylprednisolone treatment did not improve prognosis.