To establish the role of BCG instillations in the incidence and mortality of COVID-19.
NMIBC patients in instillations with BCG (induction or maintenance) during 2019/2020 were included, establishing a COVID-19 group (with a diagnosis according to the national registry) and a control group (NO-COVID).
The cumulative incidence (cases/total patients) and the case fatality rate (deaths/cases) were established, and compared with the national statistics for the same age group. T-test was used for continuous variables and Fisher's exact test for categorical variables.
175 patients were included. Eleven patients presented CIS (11/175, 6.3%), 84/175 (48.0%) Ta and 68/175 (38.9%) T1. Average number of instillations = 13.25 ± 7.4. One hundred sixty-seven patients (95.4%) had complete induction. Forty-three patients (cumulative incidence 24.6%) were diagnosed with COVID-19. There is no difference between COVID-19 and NO-COVID group in age, gender or proportion of maintenance completed. COVID-19 group fatality rate = 1/43 (2.3%). Accumulated Chilean incidence 70-79 years = 6.3%. Chilean fatality rate 70-79 years = 14%.
According to our results, patients with NMIBC submitted to instillations with BCG have a lower case-fatality rate than the national registry of patients between 70 and 79 years (2.3% vs. 14%, respectively). Intravesical BCG could decrease the mortality due to COVID-19, so instillation schemes should not be suspended in a pandemic.
BMC urology. 2021 Mar 30*** epublish ***
Héctor Gallegos, Pablo A Rojas, Francisca Sepúlveda, Álvaro Zúñiga, Ignacio F San Francisco
Departamento de Urología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Diagonal Paraguay 362, Santiago, Chile., Escuela de Pregrado, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile., Departamento de Urología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Diagonal Paraguay 362, Santiago, Chile. .
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3378500