News Scan for Mar 09, 2022

Continuing dexamethasone after COVID hospital release shows no benefitContinuing the corticosteroid dexamethasone after hospital release didn't benefit COVID-19 patients who didn't complete the 10-day drug regimen during their stay, finds a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.Kaiser Permanente Southern California researchers studied the continuing use of dexamethasone at a dosage of 6 milligrams (mg) per day after hospital release in 1,164 adult COVID-19 patients who were released from 1 of 15 hospitals from May 1 to Sep 30, 2020.Among the 1,164 patients, 59.5% continued dexamethasone after hospital release.

Median patient age was 55 years, 70.6% were Hispanic, 57.9% were men, and 90.0% needed supplemental oxygen during hospitalization.The rate of hospital readmission or death within 14 days of release was 9.1% in patients who continued dexamethasone, compared with 11.4% among patients who didn't, but the difference wasn't statistically significant.The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for readmission or death within 14 days was 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58 to 1.30) for patients who continued dexamethasone, compared with those who did not.

A sensitivity analysis that limited the treatment group to those given exactly 10 days of dexamethasone showed comparable results (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.55 to 1.43).A subgroup analysis stratified by length of dexamethasone therapy in the hospital also yielded similar findings (1 to 3 days: OR, 0.71; 4 to 9 days: OR, 1.01), oxygen requirement at release (room air: OR, 0.91; supplemental oxygen use: OR, 0.76), and illness duration at release (10 days or less: OR, 0.81; more than 10 days: OR, 0.94).The study authors noted that corticosteroids like dexamethasone were the first