ASPIRIN does not improve survival for patients admitted to hospital with Covid, a study has found.

Patients with Covid-19 are at increased risk of blood clots forming in their blood vessels.

Between November 2020 and March 2021, the Recovery trial included nearly 15,000 patients admitted to hospital with the virus an assessment of the effects of aspirin, which is widely used to reduce blood clotting in other diseases. A total of 7351 patients were randomised to receive 150 mg of aspirin once daily and compared with 7541 patients randomised to usual care alone.

The study found no evidence that the drug treatment reduced mortality, but it did find that patients allocated to aspirin had a slightly shorter hospital stay – eight days versus nine days – and a higher proportion were discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (75% vs 74%).

For every 1000 patients treated with aspirin, approximately six more patients experienced a major bleeding event and approximately six fewer experienced clotting, researchers said. Martin Landray, from the University of Oxford, said: “This is why large randomised trials are so important – to establish which treatments work.”