Key Takeaway
Ozone therapy as an adjuvant to standard COVID-19 treatment significantly reduced mortality risk and shortened hospital stays, though the overall certainty of evidence was low.
Summary
This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the efficacy of ozone therapy as an adjunct to standard treatment for COVID-19 patients. The authors pooled data from available clinical studies comparing standard care plus ozone therapy versus standard care alone.
The meta-analysis found that adjuvant ozone therapy was associated with a statistically significant reduction in mortality risk and shorter hospital length of stay compared to standard treatment alone. Some analyses also suggested trends toward reduced ICU admission, although not all secondary outcomes reached statistical significance.
The authors acknowledged that the certainty of evidence was low due to the limited number of included studies, heterogeneity in ozone delivery protocols, and variability in study designs. They concluded that while the preliminary results are encouraging, large-scale randomized controlled trials with standardized ozone protocols are needed to confirm these findings and establish optimal treatment parameters.
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