A retrospective cross-sectional study on the efficacy of immune plasma in critical COVID-19 patients under intensive care follow-up

Many methods have been attempted for the treatment of severe acute respiratory failure caused by COVID-19. One of these methods is immune plasma therapy. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of immune plasma therapy using laboratory parameters and the effect of the time of initiation of immune plasma therapy on mortality in patients with COVID-19 who developed severe acute respiratory failure. 74 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 during hospitalization and given immune plasma in the intensive care unit were included in our study. Demographic data, comorbid diseases, time of immune plasma administration (first 4 days and after the 4th day), and laboratory and mortality data before and 1 and 2 days after plasma administration were recorded retrospectively. Analysis of the data we obtained in our study showed no difference in mortality between immune plasma administration within the first 4 days and after 4 days. In the group that received immune plasma transfusions in the first 4 days, glucose was lower, while creatinine and AST values were higher. The urea, leukocyte, neutrophil, PO2, PCO2, PCT, and D-dimer values of the patients 1 day and 2 days after immune plasma transfusion was higher than the pre-transfusion values, while CK, albumin and CRP values were lower. Immune plasma transfusion therapy improved laboratory parameters supporting clinical improvement due to decreased viral load in patients with COVID-19 who developed severe acute respiratory failure; however, it did not affect mortality and the number of patients discharged was higher in the group given early treatment (first 4 days). We suggest that early immune plasma administration may be an adjunctive treatment option to improve clinical recovery and reduce mortality until a definitive and permanent cure is found under pandemic conditions.