Pulse Therapy With Corticosteroids and Intravenous Immunoglobulin in the Management of Severe Tocilizumab-Resistant COVID-19: A Report of Three Clinical Cases

Abstract

We present the cases of three patients with severe, life-threatening coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who had failed to achieve substantial improvement on intial treatment. They subsequently received pulse therapy with methylprednisolone [1,000 mg/day intravenously (IV) for three consecutive days] and IV immunoglobulin (20 g/day). This treatment regimen was associated with a prompt resolution of respiratory failure, elimination of clinical manifestations of the cytokine release syndrome (CRS), and reversal of pulmonary CT changes. The treatment was generally safe and well-tolerated. There was no evidence of protracted persistence of the virus in the patients. Further randomized controlled trials are required to better understand the efficacy and safety of high-dose methylprednisolone and IV immunoglobulin, separately or in combination with each other, in the treatment of severe, life-threatening COVID-19.