Abstract: DOI: 10.1111/eci.13645 | Revised: 2 June 2021 | Accepted: 4 June 2021 RESEARCH ARTICLE Colchicine use might be associated with lower mortality in COVID-­19 patients: A meta-­analysis Mohamed Nabil Elshafei1 | Ahmed El-­Bardissy1 Mohammed Danjuma2,3 | Mahmood Mubasher4 Mouhand F. H. Mohamed3 1 Clinical Pharmacy Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 2 College of Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar 3 Department of Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 4 Department of Internal Medicine, Rochester Regional Health, Unity Hospital of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA 5 Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA Correspondence Mouhand F. H. Mohamed, Department of Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O Box: 3050, Doha, Qatar. Email: dr.m.oraiby@hotmail.com | Ahmed Khalil1 | | Ibrahim Y. Abubeker5 | Abstract Background: Colchicine was recently repurposed for the management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-­19). This rapid review and meta-­analysis aimed to assess colchicine's impact on mortality outcomes in COVID-­19 patients. Materials and Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar since their inception till 25/03/2021 for observational or controlled studies that reported mortality as an outcome. The mortality odd ratios were generated with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals utilizing the random-­effects model. Results: Nine studies comprising 5522 patients met our inclusion criteria. Our meta-­ analysis revealed significantly lower mortality in the colchicine group (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.25-­0.48, I2 0%) compared with controls. A subgroup analysis limited to hospitalized patients (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.25-­0.50, I2 0%) revealed similarly lower mortality in the colchicine group. Conclusions: This meta-­analysis suggests a mortality benefit with colchicine when used in the treatment of COVID-­19 patients. The majority of included studies were observational; thus, the findings of this review need to be further supported by the results of ongoing trials. KEYWORDS colchicine, coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-­19, mortality, SARS-­CoV-­2 We read with great interest the recently published meta-­ analysis by Aimo et al1 in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation. The analysis encompassing over 5000 patients' data revealed a significant reduction in adverse cardiovascular events in patients with chronic coronary syndrome receiving colchicine vs. control. These results are promising and suggest a potential role for colchicine in treating thrombogenic conditions. Colchicine is an ancient anti-­inflammatory agent with an established safety profile. It inhibits various inflammatory pathways, including neutrophils adhesion, inflammasome activation, microtubule formation, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) essential in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-­CoV-­2) pathogenesis.23 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-­19) is thought to be associated with an exaggerated inflammatory response and thrombogenicity.4 Thus, studies tested repurposing this medication in the treatment of COVID-­19 and yielded promising results.5,6 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat​ive Commo​ns Attri​bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2021 The Authors. European Journal of Clinical Investigation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Stichting..