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Review
. 2020 Sep;2(3):100061.
doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100061. Epub 2020 Apr 17.

Therapeutic management of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review

M Tobaiqy  1 , M Qashqary  2 , S Al-Dahery  3 , A Mujallad  4 , A A Hershan  5 , M A Kamal  6   7 , N Helmi  6   8
Affiliations
Review

Therapeutic management of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review

M Tobaiqy et al. Infect Prev Pract. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11th March 2020. The treatment guidelines for COVID-19 vary between countries, yet there is no approved treatment to date.

Aim: To report any evidence of therapeutics used for the management of patients with COVID-19 in clinical practice since emergence of the virus.

Methods: A systematic review protocol was developed based on the PRISMA statement. Articles for review were selected from Embase, Medline and Google Scholar. Readily accessible peer-reviewed, full articles in English published from 1st December 2019 to 26th March 2020 were included. The search terms included combinations of: COVID, SARS-COV-2, glucocorticoids, convalescent plasma, antiviral and antibacterial. There were no restrictions on the types of study eligible for inclusion.

Results: Four hundred and forty-nine articles were identified in the literature search; of these, 41 studies were included in this review. These were clinical trials (N=3), case reports (N=7), case series (N=10), and retrospective (N=11) and prospective (N=10) observational studies. Thirty-six studies were conducted in China (88%). Corticosteroid treatment was reported most frequently (N=25), followed by lopinavir (N=21) and oseltamivir (N=16).

Conclusions: This is the first systematic review to date related to medication used to treat patients with COVID-19. Only 41 studies were eligible for inclusion, most of which were conducted in China. Corticosteroid treatment was reported most frequently in the literature.

Keywords: Arbidol hydrochloride; COVID-19; Convalescent plasma therapy; Corticosteroids; Hydroxychloroquine; SARS-CoV-2.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram reporting search results. COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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