Efficacy and Safety of Oral Pentoxifylline in the Treatment and Recovery
of Patients with Moderate to Severe COVID-19 Infection Treated with
Routine Protocols: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
Abstract
Backgrounds: The absence of a gold-standard treatment
for COVID-19 infection encourages clinicians to benefit from
multipotential medications in the treatment of COVID-19. The current
controlled randomized clinical trial tried to evaluate the efficacy and
safety of pentoxifylline (PTX) as an adjuvant therapy in moderate to
severe COVID-19 infection. Methods: In this randomized
controlled clinical trial, two groups of hospitalized patients with
moderate to severe COVID-19 infection were randomized by the block
randomization method to either receive standard protocol therapy or
standard protocol therapy plus pentoxifylline 400 mg TDS for 14 days.
Results: The results showed a greater improvement in the
proinflammatory biomarkers in the intervention group. Oxygen saturation,
hemoglobin, and platelet levels were also improved to a higher level
among pentoxifylline recipients. The mortality rate was reported 4% and
32% in the intervention and control groups, respectively. One out 13
patients with severe COVID-19 infection expired in the intervention
group, while 20 out of 28 patients expired in the control group, showing
about 10 times higher mortality rate compared to the pentoxifylline
recipients. Conclusion: Pentoxifylline increased the
survival rate of COVID-19 patients and played as a preventive role for
COVID-related mortality and morbidity such as acute respiratory distress
syndrome.