ABSTRACT
Objectives: Since its first appearance in Wuhan December 2019, SARS-CoV2 virus received great attention due to its severe symptoms and high spread causing COVID-19 disease which spread all over the world like a pandemic. The causative virus is capable of human-to-human transmission via droplet and direct contact suggesting that upper respiratory tract is the main site to virus manifestations. There is a great diversity in its clinical picture, although the severe respiratory and neurological symptoms are commonly present;however, other symptoms are present. Although otological manifestations are reported in many COVID-19 patients even in asymptomatic cases, they did not receive much attention compared with other critical manifestations. In this article, we paid our attention specifically to the otological manifestations of COVID-19 and their relevance either to the virus infection, treatment, or vaccination through literature review. Conclusion(s): COVID-19 disease has a deleterious effect on the inner ear. This effect is not only due to SARS-Cov-2 infection, but it could be also due to the ototoxic drugs used for treatment. The COVID-19 vaccinations are found to be implicated in the otological symptoms in some cases.Copyright © 2022, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of ivermectin in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19. Method(s): This study was a single-center, randomized, open-label, controlled trial with a 2-arm parallel-group design on 68 patients with COVID-19. According to the 1:1 ratio between the study groups (ivermectin group and standard treatment group), patients were randomly admitted to each intervention arm. Result(s): The mean age of the participants in the ivermectin group was (48.37+/-13.32) years. Eighteen of them were males (54.5%) and the participants in the control group had a mean age of (46.28+/-14.47) years, with nineteen of them being males (59.4%). As a primary outcome, after 5 days of randomization, there was no significant difference between the ivermectin group and the control group in the length of stay in the hospital (P=0.168). ICU admission (P=0.764), length of stay in ICU (P=0.622), in-hospital mortality (P=0.427), adverse drug reactions, and changes in the mean difference of laboratory data had not any significant difference between the two groups (except for urea change). In addition, the radiologic findings of the two groups of patients were not significantly different. Linear regression analysis showed that for every 10 years increase of age, 0.6 day of hospitalization duration was increased. There was no statistically significant association between other variables and clinical outcomes. Conclusion(s): Among adult hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, there was no significant relationship between the administration of ivermectin single dose in a five-day course and clinical improvement, and mortality of the participants.Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.