Gout Drug Colchicine can Reduce Hospital Stay in COVID-19 Patients

In COVID-19 patients, colchicine can help cut the need for oxygen therapy and hospital stay. Colchicine is a drug used to treat gout and is relatively cheap.

The study conducted by Brazilian researchers is published in the journal RMD.

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‘In COVID-19 patients, gout drug colchicine can reduce the duration oxygen therapy and hospital stay. Colchicine can be added to standard treatment for moderate to severe COVID-19 patients and it is not associated with major side effects.’
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The findings of the study suggest that even though it's not possible to confirm whether colchicine can alter the death risk, it may nevertheless be worth adding it to standard treatment for hospital patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection.

Colchicine is beneficial in treatment and prevention of systemic inflammatory conditions like gout. In moderate to severe COVID-19 infection, systemic inflammation is a cardinal feature. The researchers wanted to study if addition of colchicine to standard treatment might reduce the need for supplemental oxygen, length of hospital stay, including in intensive care, and risk of death in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection.

Moderate disease was characterized by fever, breathing difficulties, and pneumonia and severe disease is characterized by all the above symptoms along with a rapid breathing rate of 30 or more times a minute and low levels of oxygen in the body (oxygen saturation of 92% or less).

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75 patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection were randomly assigned to receive either standard treatment plus 0.5 mg colchicine three times a day for 5 days, followed by the same dose twice a day for 5 days, or standard treatment plus a placebo drug.

The standard treatment consists of doses of the antibiotic azithromycin, antimalarial hydroxychloroquine, and the blood thinner heparin, plus a steroid- methylprednisolone and if the need for supplemental oxygen was considerable--equal to 6 litres/minute or more--and intensive care required.

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The results were based on 72 patients- 36 in each group and showed that the average duration of oxygen therapy was 4 days for those treated with additional colchicine compared with 6.5 days for those in the standard treatment plus placebo group.

The average length of hospital stay was 7 days for the colchicine group when compared to the 9 days for the standard treatment group. At the end of day 7, 9 percent of those treated with colchicine needed maintenance oxygen when compared to 42 percent, in the standard treatment group.

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Diarrhea was common in patients taking colchicine. Overall, colchicine was safe and well tolerated, with few side effects.

As the number of patients in the trial was small, the researchers were not able to find out if colchicine might avoid the need for intensive care or lessen the risk of death. Colchicine does not seem to have direct antiviral properties, but it may lessen the body's inflammatory response and help ward off damage to the cells lining vessel walls (endothelial cells).

The researchers said, “Whatever the mechanism of action...--colchicine seems to be beneficial for the treatment of hospitalised patients with COVID-19.”

They added that colchicine was not associated with serious side effects, such as heart or liver damage or immune system suppression--side effects that have sometimes been linked to some of the other drugs used to treat the infection.

Reductions in the need for oxygen therapy and length of hospital stay can cut healthcare costs and the need for hospital beds, added to which colchicine is not an expensive drug, they conclude.

Source-Medindia