A study to assess the outcome in COVID-19 confirmed cases receiving Remdesivir as compared to conventional therapy: Medical records-based audit

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 infection caused by SARS-Corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused large number of infections and mortality globally. There are no proven medications to prevent and treat COVID-19, nevertheless several potential pharmacotherapeutic agents have been tried. Remdesivir was found to be effective in few studies. AIMS: To assess the outcome in COVID-19 confirmed cases receiving Remdesivir as compared to conventional therapy. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in South India after the approval of the Institutional ethical committee. It was a medical records-based retrospective, longitudinal study. Medical records of the inpatients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were reviewed from the period of June 15, 2020 to September 15, 2020. This study was conducted to assess the clinical and laboratory profile and outcome in the patients admitted with moderate and severe COVID-19 disease who received Remdesivir. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The analysis was done using SPSS Inc. released 2009, PASW statistics for Windows version 18.0, Chicago. RESULTS: One hundred eleven (N = 111) patients were included in the study. 56 patients received the conventional treatment (Hydroxychloroquine HCQ) and 55 patients received Remdesivir. It was seen that among patients treated with HCQ, 24 (42.9%) required non-invasive ventilation and seven (12.7%) patients treated with Remdesivir required it (P = 0.001). It was noticed that the mean duration of hospitalization was 16.6 days in HCQ group and was 11.4 days in Remdesivir group (P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that Remdesivir does have benefit in reducing the mortality and duration of hospital stay. There was reduced requirement of non-invasive and invasive ventilation among patients treated with Remdesivir.