3. RESULTS
The age of the 50 COVID-19 patients whose medical charts were retrospectively reviewed, ranged from 21 to 80 years, with the mean age of 57 years in the steroids group and 42 years in the non-steroids group. Overall, 62% were male and 36% were female patients. Co-morbidities among the patients of the steroids group were diabetes mellitus 16%, hypertension 24%, ischemic heart disease 20%, smoking 12%, and among that of the non-steroids group were diabetes mellitus 24%, hypertension 24%, ischemic heart disease 36%, smoking 16%. Lymphopenia was present in 72% of the patients in the steroids group and 64% of the patients in the non-steroids group (see Table 1).
All patients in the steroids group received dexamethasone 6 mg intravenously for one week as part of the protocol for COVID-19 management. The mean length of hospital stay was 9.3 days in the steroids group and 10.9 days in the non-steroids group with a p value of 0.249 (see Table 2). In the steroids group, 64% had moderate respiratory disease and 36% had severe respiratory disease. In the non-steroids group, 64% had moderate respiratory disease, 32% had severe respiratory disease and 4% had a critical disease. None of the patients was shifted to a ventilator in either group. One patient in the steroids group (4%) and two patients in the non-steroids group (8%) needed to be put on high flow nasal cannula. In the steroids group, 64% of patients and in the non-steroids group, 72% of patients had a maximum oxygen requirement of 1-5 L/min. One patient died in the steroids group with a recovery rate of 96%, while two patients died in the non-steroids group with a recovery rate of 92% (p value 0.552) (see Table 3).