Clinical case of nebulized surfactant therapy for severe COVID-19-associated pneumonia at the 2nd stage of rehabilitation treatment

Abstract

The development of an effective and safe drug for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 is currently an urgent task for the global medical community. Given that lung damage remains the predominant syndrome in COVID-19, and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the most common reason for transfer to intensive care unit and connection to artificial lung ventilation, it seems promising to study the effectiveness and safety of surfactant therapy, successfully proven in practice in the treatment of adult and preterm infants ARDS. Despite the fact that most studies are devoted to the use of this method in patients in the acute stage, we present a case from our own practice of Surfactant-BL inhalation in a patient with COVID-19-associated pneumonia at the 2nd stage of rehabilitation treatment. Clinical signs of respiratory failure (RR 22 per minute, Sa O2 86% on atmospheric air, 95% on insufflation of humidified oxygen 7 L/min), high percentage of lung tissue damage according to thoracic CT (55% – CT3) on admission to the Medical Rehabilitation Unit, as well as a score of 6 on the NEWS2 scale served as a basis for the patient to receive Surfactant-BL inhalation for the indication «prevention of the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome» in a dosage of 75 mg twice a day for 5 days. Positive dynamics of clinical data at the end of the course of inhalations (decrease of RR to 16 per minute, increase of Sa O2 to 90% on atmospheric air and to 95% on insufflation of humidified oxygen 5 l/min, improvement of auscultatory picture), as well as the control thoracic CT scan, which showed a decrease of lung parenchyma damage to 45.2% (CT-2), indicated the effectiveness and safety of this method in the complex rehabilitation of COVID-19 patient, being a basis for further investigation of this issue