Ozone therapy by rectal insufflation in long COVID syndrome: a preliminary study with thermographic evaluation and quality of life measurement

Introduction Post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 syndrome (PACS) is a multisystemic clinical condition that clinically starting weeks or even months after acute SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19) infections. The objective of this study was to explore change in quality of life, mechanical force and metabolic activity after ozone therapy treatment.Methods A preliminary clinical open label study was carried out. Twenty-three patients diagnosed with PACS more than 5 months ago participated in the study. Thermography, Handgrip test and Quality of life scale SF12 were used to analyze the effects of ozone therapy on these patients.Results Related to the Handgrip test, a significant improvement was recorded in T0-T1 time interval (p = 0.0003; d 0.88), but in T1-T2 time variation was not statistically significant (p = 0.957). About the SF-12 test, a significant difference was also found in both the PCS (p = 0.0038; d = 0.67) and the MCS (p = 0.0088, d = 0.60) in T0-T1 time, but not in T1-T2 for either the PCS (p = 0.5933) or the MCS (p = 0.3917). Finally, regarding temperature, statistically significant differences were observed in the T0-T1 time interval (p = 0.0465, d = 0.44) but not between T1 and T2 (p = 0.1038). No significant differences between the sexes were observed for any of the four parameters.Conclusion Our results confirmed that clinical ozone could be a potentially useful drug in improving the strength, quality of life and basal metabolism in patients with long COVID. However, we believe that further studies and larger sample sizes are needed to corroborate and support the results obtained in this preliminary trial.