Abstract

Objective:

This study investigates the effect of convalescent plasma (CP) addition to the standard treatment on mortality in critical coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients.

Materials and Methods:

This retrospective cohort study was conducted by evaluating the data of 255 critical COVID-19 patients in Marmara University Medical Faculty Hospital, Pandemic Intensive Care Unit (ICU), between April and November 2020.

Results:

The patients were divided into two groups, a control group that received standard treatment (153; 60.0%) versus a second group that received CP in addition to standard treatment (102; 40.0%). The ICU mortality rate was found to be lower (p<0.05) in patients receiving CP (38; 37.3%) compared to patients not receiving CP (79; 51.6%). The use of CP was found to reduce the probability of ICU mortality in patients with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-II (APACHE-II) score ≤10 [odds ratio (OR): 0.251; confidence interval (CI) 95%: 0.063-0.994, p=0.049) and APACHE-II score 11-14 (OR: 0.237; CI 95%: 0.066-0.844, p=0.026). CP transfusion, however, did not reduce the mortality in patients with an APACHE-II score of 15 and above. Furthermore, each day of delay in CP transfusion was found to increase the probability of mortality by 1.3 times (OR: 1.369; CI 95%: 1.155-1.622, p<0.001).

Conclusion:

The addition of CP to standard treatment in COVID-19 patients followed in ICU reduces mortality

Keywords: Convalescent plasma, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, intensive care unit, mortality

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite?

1.
Sabaz MS, Gül F, Bilgili B, Kaplan ST, Doruk Oktay B, Cinel İ. The Effect of Convalescent Plasma Infusion in the Intensive Care Unit on Mortality of COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Turk J Intensive Care. 2022;20:135-146. https://doi.org/10.4274/tybd.galenos.2022.63634