Efficacy of IVIG (Intravenous Immunoglobulin) for Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): a meta-analysis

International Immunopharmacology. 2021;:107732-107732
Abstract
Background The benefit of IVIG (Intravenous Immunoglobulin) therapy for COVID-19 remains controversial We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy of IVIG treatment in patients with COVID-19 Methods We searched articles from Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, MedRxiv between 1 January 2020 and February 17, 2021 We selected randomized clinical trials and observational studies with a control group to assess the efficiency of IVIG in treating patients with COVID-19 Subjects were divided into ‘non-severe’, ‘severe’ and ‘critical’ three subgroups based on the information of the study and the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of severity We pooled the data of mortality and other outcomes using either a fixed-effect model or a random-effects model Results Our meta-analysis retrieved 4 clinical trials and 3 cohort studies including 825 hospitalized patients The severity of COVID-19 is associated with the efficiency of IVIG In critical subgroup, IVIG could reduce the mortality compared with the control group [RR=0 63 (0 45-0 88,I2=25%) But there was no significant difference in the severe or non-severe subgroups Conclusion IVIG has demonstrated clinical efficacy on critical ill patients with COVID-19 There may be a relationship between the efficacy of IVIG and the COVID-19 disease severity Well-designed clinical trials to identify the clinical and biochemical characteristics in COVID-19 patients’ population that could benefit from IVIG are warranted in the future
Study details
Study Design : Systematic Review
Credits : Bibliographic data from Global Research on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Database: World Health Organisation, Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.