Effect of Rectal Ozone (O3) in Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia: Preliminary Results

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of rectal ozone (O 3) in COVID-19 patients with severe pneumonia admitted at Hospital Universitario Santa Cristina, Madrid. In a before-and-after study, four patients admitted with severe bilateral pneumonia due to COVID-19 were treated with rectal ozone and confirmed with (+) RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 and evaluated afterwards. The analyzed outcome variables were as follows: (a) clinical improvement (O 2 saturation and O 2 supply); (b) biochemical improvement (fibrinogen, D-dimer, urea, ferritin, LDH, IL-6, and CRP); (c) radiological improvement. The treatment protocol consisted of 5 sessions (1 session/day) of intra-rectal ozone, applied in a volume of 100 mL and a concentration of 35 μg/mL. The Protocol was previously approved by the Hospital's Health Care Ethics Committee (CEAS) (Report 15/4/2020) for compassionate use in the face of this exceptional pandemic situation, and prior informed consent was obtained from the patient/legal representative. The patients improved oxygen saturation, as observed by the lower number of desaturations and the lower supply of O 2. Biomarkers of inflammation decreased (fibrinogen, D-dimer, urea, ferritin, LDH, IL-6, and CRP). Finally, the radiological signs of bilateral viral pneumonitis improved between 1 and 2 grades based on Taylor's radiological scale. Rectal ozone decreases O 2 supply and improves O 2 saturation, decreases inflammation biomarkers, and improves Taylor's radiological grade in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Rectal ozone is a safe, effective, cheap, and simple alternative capable of acting on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and it is presented as an adjunctive therapeutic option to consider in the management of severe bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia.

Old Treatment for a New Disease: Can Rectal Ozone Insufflation Be Used for COVID-19 Management? A Case Report

“…Our target was to fill the whole colon with the gas mixture of O2/O3. Improvement of oxygenation in our cases was faster than described in cases that received small volumes of O3 [ 8 ]. More research work is needed to determine the best volume and concentration of rectal O3 therapy for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.…”

“…The effectiveness of rectal O3 insufflation was evaluated in a recent study that included four patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Improved oxygen saturation was noted after 5 sessions of treatment, together with reduced levels of biomarkers of inflammation [ 8 ]. In the following cases, we used O3 therapy as a potential treatment, based on our knowledge about its ability to treat hypoxia and its antiviral properties.…”

Compassionate use of rectal Ozone (O3) in severe COVID-19 pneumonia: a case-control study.

“…The clinical improvement observed in our preliminary results 12 and now in this case-control study con rms the promising utility of Ozone in the management of COVID-19 pandemic, as stated by some other authors 11,[15][16][17] .…”

“…Only one CT has published its results (Ozone autohemotherapy), while the others are still recruiting patients 4,5 . There subsides the importance of the Study; there is no report on the literature of the effectiveness of rectal Ozone, apart from our preliminary results recently published (four cases) 12 . This study presents the largest sample of COVID-19 patients treated by rectal Ozone insu ation in a case-control design.…”

“…Recently, our study Group has presented the preliminary results of 4 mild-severe COVID-19 patients treated by rectal Ozone, with very promising results on the management of SARS-Cov-2 infection 12 .…”