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Chronic Hydroxychloroquine Therapy and COVID-19 Outcomes
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In this retrospective review, the authors compared SARS-CoV-2–positive patients seen at a single tertiary care center with (n = 50) or without (n = 103) chronic hydroxychloroquine use for at least 6 weeks prior to evaluation. They found no significant differences between the hydroxychloroquine group and the control group in any measured clinical outcomes, including admission rates (34% vs 42.5%, respectively; P = .468), length of hospital stay (5 days vs 8.5 days, respectively; P = .123), length of ICU stay (9 days vs 17 days, respectively; P = .825), intubation rates (19% vs 18.5%, respectively; P = .958), and mortality (19% vs 20.4%, respectively; P = .25). The outcomes were the same on subgroup analysis when chronic immunosuppressive therapy was corrected for.
- Although this study may have been underpowered to detect smaller differences in outcomes, the results suggest that chronic hydroxychloroquine use prior to development of COVID-19 does not have a pre-exposure prophylactic benefit.
abstract
This abstract is available on the publisher's site.
Access this abstract nowHydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has failed to demonstrate significant therapeutic benefit for COVID-19 in recent studies, although interest in this medication’s potential pre- and post-prophylactic efficacy remains, with one retrospective study demonstrating reduced COVID-19 infection amongst patients taking chronic HCQ. In this study, we sought to evaluate COVID-19 clinical outcomes in patients taking chronic HCQ for an underlying condition as well as in a matched cohort not taking HCQ at time of COVID-19 diagnosis.