MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mar del Plata doctors successfully tackle COVID-19 from a different angle

The results of the new approach are encouraging

A group of physicians from the Argentine beach resort of Mar del Plata have been trying a new therapy against COVID-19 of their own concoction which has so far yielded “very encouraging results,” according to press reports.

The investigation undertaken by doctors from Mar del Plata's Colón Clinic has worked in 100% of critically ill patients and could revolutionize the treatment of the disease globally as per local news outlets.

The approach consists of applying to COVID-19 patients the treatments already recommended for pulmonary edema instead of those used for pneumonia, it was explained. Anti-inflammatory drugs are used in the first case and diuretics in the second.

With “diuretics, the patient eliminates the excess of retained fluids,” said Doctor José Luis Santos of the Colón Clinic's ICU.

“We did this based on observations of the CT scans of patients with severe Covid, where we saw direct signs that the patient was having a fluid overload. We reinterpreted this and we suspected it was pulmonary edema due to Covid,” he explained.

After the treatment, patients began to improve their “oxygenation, clinical picture and tomography” in the days following the treatment.

The researchers have published a peer-reviewed work in the Swiss-based Journal of Clinical Medicine under the title ”Pulmonary edema in COVID-19 treated with furosemide and negative fluid balance (NEGBAL): A different and promising approach.“

”It is not our intention to say 'we have found the cure for the coronavirus',“ Santos pointed out. ”What we say is 'let's walk in this direction, because the results are very encouraging and promising,'“ he added.

Santos also explained that according to their observations, the coronavirus cause what ”we historically interpret as pneumonia“ but it is actually ”two phenomena: pneumonia, which is what the virus initially produces, and a second phase of fluid accumulation, which ends up producing pulmonary edema.“

”Based on these observations, we applied the usual treatment for pulmonary edema to the patients, and what we saw was a very encouraging response, with improvement in oxygenation, clinical improvement and tomographic improvement,” Santos elaborated.