Success of the Cytokine Absorption Therapies in COVID-19 Patients Diagnosed with Cytokine Release Syndrome.

Objective: To compare the effects of cytokine absorption therapy with a resin-based cytokine absorption cartridge to tocilizumab treatment in critically ill COVID-19 patients diagnosed with cytokine release syndrome (CRS).

Study Design: A descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: University of Health Sciences, Izmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey from April 2020 to April 2021.

Methodology: Twenty-four intensive care unit (ICU) patients were included in the study. Inclusion criteria were diagnosis of severe COVID-19, diagnosis of CRS and age of older than 18 years. Exclusion criteria were pregnancy, malignancy, prior COVID-19 vaccination, procalcitonin levels higher than 2 ng/ml and life-threatening comorbidities before ICU admission. Twelve patients received tocilizumab and the other 12 patients received cytokine absorption therapy. The groups were compared for clinical outcomes and inflammatory markers (CRP, fibrinogen, ferritin, D-dimer).

Results: Inflammatory markers showed smilar changes with both treatments, mostly toward improvement, on the same post-treatment days. The mortality rate was 58% (seven patients) in the cytokine absorption group and 50% (six patients) in the tocilizumab group (p = 0.682).

Conclusion: It was found that the cytokine absorption therapy reduces inflammatory mediators in intubated and critically ill Covid-19 patients similar to tocilizumab treatment, and both treatments have comparable clinical outcomes.

Key Words: SARS-CoV-2, Cytokine release syndrome, Chemokines, Absorption, Tocilizumab.