Rescue Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) with Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA)
Author(s)
Barrett, Christopher D
DownloadRescue_Therapy_for_Severe_COVID_19_Associated.97875.pdf (1.215Mb)
Open Access Policy
Open Access Policy
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Alternative title
A Case Series
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented stresses on modern medical systems, overwhelming the resource infrastructure in numerous countries while presenting a unique series of pathophysiologic clinical findings. Thrombotic coagulopathy is common in critically ill patients suffering from COVID-19, with associated high rates of respiratory failure requiring prolonged periods of mechanical ventilation. Here we report a case series of five patients suffering from profound, medically refractory COVID-19 associated respiratory failure who were treated with fibrinolytic therapy using tissue plasminogen activator (tPA, Alteplase). All five patients appeared to have an improved respiratory status following tPA administration: one patient had an initial marked improvement that partially regressed after several hours, one patient had transient improvements that were not sustained, and three patients had sustained clinical improvements following tPA administration.
Date issued
2020-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MITJournal
Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Citation
Barrett, Christopher D., et al., "Rescue Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) with Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA)." Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (May 2020): doi 10.1097/ta.0000000000002786 ©2020 Author(s)
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
2163-0755
Keywords
Surgery, Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine