Inflammatory cytokine depletion in severe coronavirus disease 2019 infectious pneumonia: A case report

Multiorgan/system injury was observed in severely infected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, in addition to viral pneumonia. Recognizing and correcting the key and immediate dysfunctions may reduce mortality.

A 66-year-old previously healthy male patient was referred to the isolation ward in Guanggu Branch of Hubei Province Maternity and Childcare Hospital with a high fever and nonproductive cough for twenty days.

Diagnosis of severe COVID-19 infectious pneumonia was established by travel history, clinical features, chest imaging, and a positive oropharyngeal swab specimen result for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RT-PCR assay.

In addition to standard supportive care, combined inflammatory cytokine depletion therapy (double filtration plasma pheresis and tocilizumab) and convalescent plasma were administered.

The patient's homeostatic parameters (blood pressure, heart rate, spontaneous respiration, SPO2, and blood gas) recovered, along with the recovery on chest imaging. All the intravenous catheters were removed. Supportive care continued for several days, and the patient was transferred to a non-ICU isolation ward.

It is not safe to draw causal conclusions between cytokine depletion and clinical manifestation improvement with only 1 case, but this is a potential research direction in facing the COVID-19 crisis.