Abstract: Coronavirus Pandemic Reducing length of hospital stay with colchicine Özlem Karakaş1, Abdulsamet Erden1, Serdar Can Güven1, Berkan Armağan1, Enes Seyda Sahiner2,3, Ali Can Kurtipek2,3, Osman Inan2,3, Emin Gemcioglu2,3, İhsan Ateş2, Ahmet Omma1, Orhan Küçüksahin1,4 1 Department of Rheumatology, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey 2 Department of Internal Medicine, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey 3 Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey 4 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Ankara, Turkey Abstract Introduction: Colchicine is an ancient agent with well-known anti-inflammatory effects and commonly used in treatment of hyperinflammatory conditions. It has been argued that colchicine could be an appropriate treatment option in COVID-19 to control hyperinflammatory response. Here in this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of colchicine on outcomes of COVID-19 in our inpatient cohort. Methodology: In this retrospective cohort study, hospitalized COVID-19 patients were investigated. Demographics, comorbidities, COVID19 symptoms, laboratory findings on admission and discharge, baseline and seventh day oxygenation status, rates of mortality, intensive care unit admission, administration of other anti-inflammatory treatments and length of hospital stay were compared between patients who received standard of care medications and who received colchicine additionally. Results: Three hundred and thirty-six patients were included in the study (171 standard of care, 165 standard of care plus colchicine). The median length of hospital stay in colchicine group was significantly shorter. Rates of admission to intensive care unit, anti-inflammatory treatment administration and mortality did not differentiate between standard of care and colchicine groups. However, reduced rates of mortality and ICU admission were observed in patients who received colchicine with a dose of 1 mg/day when compared to patients who received 0.5 mg/day. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that COVID-19 patients who received colchicine in addition to standard of care had shorter hospital stay. Our results further support the use of colchicine in treatment of COVID-19, particularly with a dose of 1 mg/day. Key words: COVID-19; colchicine; outcome; mortality; hospitalization. J Infect Dev Ctries 2022; 16(1):57-62. doi:10.3855/jidc.14924 (Received 17 February 2021 – Accepted 14 June 2021) Copyright © 2022 Karakaş et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.