Gargling with 7.5% Sodium Bicarbonate Solution for SARS-CoV-2 Viremia Clearance: Our Institutional Clinical Experience
Mahto,
Gargling with 7.5% Sodium Bicarbonate Solution for SARS-CoV-2 Viremia Clearance: Our Institutional Clinical..,
, M., Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine, doi:10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23901
Report on 10 patients treated with sodium bicarbonate gargling, suggesting no significant improvements. There was no control group and gargling only, without inhalation or nasal spray/drops.
Mahto et al., 7 Jul 2021, India, peer-reviewed, 1 author.
Contact:
neeraj.jlnmc@gmail.com.
Abstract: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Gargling with 7.5% Sodium Bicarbonate Solution for
SARS-CoV-2 Viremia Clearance: Our Institutional
Clinical Experience
Neeraj Kumar1 , Abhyuday Kumar2 , Mala Mahto3 , Prabhat K Singh4
A b s t r ac t
Background: Gargling had been reported to have some roles in the prevention and treatment of respiratory tract infections. The purpose
of this study was to assess the ability of regular gargling using 7.5% sodium bicarbonate to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in the oropharynx and
nasopharynx.
Materials and methods: This pilot, open-labeled, nonrandomized, parallel single-center study. The effect of 30 seconds, three times per
day gargling using 7.5% sodium bicarbonate solution—25 mL on SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance among coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)
patients in a dedicated COVID hospital at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar, India. We monitored the progress on by days
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 by observing variables like clinical category, P/F ratio, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) ratio, platelet count, ferritin,
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), CRP, procalcitonin, d-dimer, INR, APTT, and sequential organ function assessment (SOFA) score. We have also
done repeat reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing on day 5 and day 7.
Results: A total of 10 patients (7 males and 3 females) were included in our study after confirmed COVID positivity. The age range was from 30
to 61 years. Based on clinical severity and P/F ratio, 7 patients were included in the milder group as their ratio was more than 200 and the rest
3 patients were included in the moderate group as P/F ratio was less than 200. Two respondents had comorbidities, which were non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma and ovarian carcinoma. Viral clearance was achieved at day 7 in 3 of 10 patients. However, the analysis of using 7.5% sodium
bicarbonate 25 mL gargle statistically showed nonsignificant p-value for all of our studied variables. However, the PCR results were negative
on 24 hours apart, i.e., on day 5 and day 7.
Conclusions: This is only a preliminary study which showed that gargling with 7.5% sodium bicarbonate may not be effective in achieving
early SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance among mild COVID-19 patients. However, still larger studies are required to ascertain the benefit of gargling
for different stages of COVID-19 patients with keeping in mind the important variables suggestive of viremia clearance.
Keywords: 7.5% sodium bicarbonate, COVID-19, Gargling.
Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine (2021): 10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23901
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