• Marko Lucijanić, Nikolina Bušić, Petra Bistrović, Ivan Papić, Marina Zelenika Margeta, Paško Babić, Mihaela Barčan, Antica Pasarić, Mirna Mustapić, Nevenka Piskač Živković, Maja Ortner Hadžiabdić, Tomo Lucijanić, Ivica Lukšić, and Bruno Baršić.
• Marko Lucijanić, Hematology Department, University Hospital Dubrava, Av. Gojka Šuška 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, markolucijanic@yahoo.com.
• Croat. Med. J. 2022 Dec 31; 63 (6): 536543536-543.

AimTo evaluate the association of remdesivir use and the survival of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 5959 COVID-19 patients admitted to our tertiary-level hospital from March 2020 to June 2021. A total of 876 remdesivir-treated patients were matched with 876 control patients in terms of age, sex, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), WHO-defined COVID-19 severity on admission, and oxygen requirement at the time of remdesivir use.ResultsAmong 1752 COVID-19 patients (median age 66 years, 61.8% men), 1405 (80.2%) had severe and 311 (17.8%) had critically severe COVID-19 on admission. Remdesivir was given at a median of one day after hospital admission and at a median of eight days from the onset of symptoms. Overall, 645 (73.6%) patients received remdesivir before high-flow oxygen therapy (HFOT) or mechanical ventilation (MV), 198 (22.6%) after HFOT institution, and 83 (9.5%) after MV institution. Remdesivir use was associated with improved survival in the entire cohort (hazard ratio 0.79, P=0.006). Survival benefit was evident among patients receiving remdesivir during low-flow oxygen requirement (hazard ratio 0.61, P<0.001) but not among patients who received it after starting HFOT (P=0.499) or MV (P=0.380).ConclusionRemdesivir, if given during low-flow oxygen therapy, might be associated with survival benefit in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

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