Simvastatin in Critically Ill Patients with Covid-19

, Thomas E Hills1, Elizabeth Lorenzi1

  • 1From the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wellington (T.E.H., S. McGuinness, A.M.T., C.J.M.), and Middlemore Hospital (T.E.H.), Te Toka Tumai Auckland City Hospital (T.E.H., S. McGuinness, R.L.P., C.J.M.), and the School of Nursing, University of Auckland (R.L.P.), Auckland - all in New Zealand; Berry Consultants, Austin, TX (E.L., L.R.B., M.A.D., M.F., A.M., C.T.S., R.J.L., S.M.B.); Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queen's University Belfast (M. Shyamsundar, C.M.O., D.F.M.), the Department of Critical Care, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (M. Shyamsundar, D.F.M.), and the Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and the Department of Health (I.S.Y.), Belfast, Imperial College London (F.A.-B., A.C.G.), the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (C.A., D.A.H., L.L., A.J.M., P.R.M., K.M.R.), University College London Hospitals (R.H.), and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (A.C.G.), London, the Institute for Regeneration and Repair (A. Beane) and the Centre for Inflammation Research (R.H., M.S.-H.), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol, and Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust, Bristol (C.A.B.), and NHS Blood and Transplant, Oxford (L.J.E.) - all in the United Kingdom; Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Prometheus, University Paris-Saclay, the Department of Intensive Care, Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, University Versailles Saint Quentin-University Paris-Saclay, the Laboratory of Infection and Inflammation-Unité 173, School of Medicine Simone Veil, University Versailles Saint Quentin-University Paris-Saclay, INSERM, and Fédération Hospitalo-Universitaire SEPSIS (Saclay and Paris Seine Nord Endeavor to Personalize Interventions for Sepsis) - all in Garches, France (D. Annane); King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Y.A.); Nepal Intensive Care Research Foundation, Kathmandu (D. Aryal); Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Bangkok, Thailand (D. Aryal, A. Beane); Unity Health Toronto (Z.B., J.C.M., M. Santos), the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto, and Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (E.C.G.), Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network (P.R.L.), and Keenan Centre for Biomedical Research (J.C.M.), Toronto, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC (F.L.), McGill University Health Centre, Montreal (P.R.L.), the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (S. Murthy), the Population Health and Optimal Practices Research Unit, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, and the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City (A.F.T.), and the University of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba, Winnipeg (R.Z.) - all in Canada; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care (M. Bonten, L.P.G.D.) and the Intensive Care Center (L.P.G.D.), University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, and the European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases (M. Bonten), Utrecht, and Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen (F.V.) - all in the Netherlands; the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (F.M.B., S.W.) and the Institute for Infection Disease and Infection Control (S.W.), Jena University Hospital, Friedrich-Schiller University, and Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Hans Knöll Institute (S.W.) - both in Jena, Germany; the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (A. Burrell, A.C.C., C.G., A.M.H., Z.K.M., A.D.N., J.C.P., C.J.M., S.A.W.) and the School of Clinical Sciences (A.C.C.), Monash University, Alfred Hospital (A. Burrell, A.D.N.), and Monash Health (A.C.C., Z.K.M.), Melbourne, VIC, the Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, and the Intensive Care Unit, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane (P.S.K.), and St. John of God Health Care, Perth, WA (S.A.W.) - all in Australia; the Global Coalition for Adaptive Research, Larkspur (M. Buxton), the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, and the Department of Anesthesia, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco (C.S.C.), and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance (R.J.L.) - all in California; the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, and IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan (M.C.); National University Hospital Singapore, Singapore (M.E.C.); Dr. Kamakshi Memorial Hospital (D.J.) and Apollo Speciality Hospitals (E.R.) - both in Chennai, India; the University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium (H.G.); National Intensive Care Surveillance-MORU, Colombo, Sri Lanka (R.H.); Ziauddin University, Karachi, Pakistan (M.H.); the University of Pittsburgh (D.T.H., B.J.M., M.D.N., C.W.S., D.C.A.) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (D.T.H., B.J.M.) - both in Pittsburgh; Jikei University School of Medicine and the University of Tokyo, Tokyo (N.I.), and St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Yokohama Seibu Hospital, Yokohama (H.S.) - all in Japan; University College Dublin Clinical Research Centre, St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin (A.D.N.); Universidad de La Sabana and Clínica Universidad de La Sabana - both in Chia, Colombia (L.F.R.); the Division of Clinical and Translational Research, Division of Critical Care, Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis (P.S.); and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston (B.T.T.).

PubMed
Summary

Simvastatin did not significantly improve outcomes for critically ill Covid-19 patients in a large trial. The study found no clear benefit, and serious adverse events were more common with simvastatin.

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