Aspirin may improve 3-month survival for patients critically ill with COVID-19

Press release issued: 22 March 2022

Antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin have little effect on the need for life support in COVID-19, but they may improve survival in the following months according to a new international study led in the UK by researchers at the University of Bristol and Imperial College London.

People who become seriously ill with COVID-19 are at risk of developing blood clots that can block their blood vessels and lead to potentially fatal organ damage. Researchers want to know if this process could be prevented by treating patients with blood-thinning antiplatelet drugs.

The study found that using antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin, to treat patients who are seriously ill with COVID-19 does not seem to alter the short-term need for life support. However, they did find signs that patients given these drugs were more likely to survive in the following three months.

Paper: ‘Effect of Antiplatelet Therapy on Survival and Organ Support–Free Days in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19A Randomized Clinical Trial’ by C Bradbury et al. in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).