Effectiveness of tocilizumab in non-intubated cases with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

"Declarations Conflict of interestThere is no competing interest. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. Ethical approvalThis declaration is “not applicable”. Conflict of interest There is no competing interest. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose."

"Funding No funding received. The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work."

"This is a systematic review and meta-analysis which was registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) with a registration number CRD42021232575. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines []. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medrxiv, and Biorxiv between January 01, 2020, and February 13, 2022. “COVID-19, tocilizumab” and “SARS CoV-2, tocilizumab” keyword combinations were used in defined databases. Methods: We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medrxiv, and Biorxiv until February 13, 2022, for non-intubated cases, and included randomized-controlled trials (RCT) based on bias assessment. The primary outcomes were the requirement of invasive mechanical ventilation and mortality. Random effect and fixed-effect models were used. The heterogeneity was measured using the χ2 and I2 statistics, with χ2 p ≤ 0.05 and I2 ≥ 50% indicating the presence of significant heterogeneity. We registered the study to the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) with the registration number CRD42021232575."