ABSTRACT
Introduction: The primary objective of this study was to assess whether proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use at pre-admission affected clinical outcomes among covid 19 hospitalised patients. Aims & Methods: Prospectively captured data was analysed to include patients (>18 year) at the hospital with covid 19 infection . PPI data was derived from hospital and primary care records and the study period is over between February 2020 and February 2021.Clinical outcomes of covid 19 patients who were on proton pump inhibitors preadmission were compared with that of covid 19 patients who were not on proton pump inhibitors at the same time. The primary endpoint of the study was 60-day mortality, intensive care unit admission, high dependency unit admission as well as the development of covid-19 complications. Additional endpoints included length of critical care admission. Result(s): A total of 305 patients were included in the study,158 were on proton pump inhibitors and 147 not on proton pump inhibitor at index admission. There were 101 males and 57 females with a mean age of 61.65 in the PPI group, and in the no-PPI group there were 92 males and 55 females with a mean age of 57.28. The mean length of stay was9.98 in the PPI group and 11.83 in the non-PPI group. There was a slightly increased mortality rate of 29.93% in the non-PPI group compared with 28.48 % in the PPI group. Intensive Care Unit (ITU) and High Dependency Unit (HDU) admissions were higher in the non-PPI group (64.62%,30.6% respectively) than in the PPI group (58.22%,27.21%). Complications were more common in the non-PPI group;84.3% had pulmonary complications,7.3% had thromboembolic complications. In the PPI group 72.15% had pulmonary complications which was over 10 % less than in the non-PPI group, 4.4% had thromboembolic complications which was 1.66 times less than the non-PPI group. Conclusion(s): In Our study PPI usage at index admission failed to show any worsening of outcomes in Covid 19 hospitalised patients, as opposed to recent published papers. This proposed causation needs further evaluation via well conducted prospective studies.