Oxandrolone Use in Critical Illness and Recovery

Benefits and Considerations

• Oxandrolone has shown benefits in severe burns, including reduced weight loss, increased lean mass, improved donor-site healing, and reduced length of hospital stay, according to the American College of Critical Care Medicine 1
• It may be considered as part of a multimodal intervention for post-ICU recovery, particularly for patients with persistent testosterone deficiency, as recommended by the Society of Critical Care Medicine 1
• There are insufficient consistent clinical data to recommend currently approved androgenic steroids like oxandrolone to increase muscle mass in cancer patients, as stated by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism 2, 3
• In a randomized trial of patients with non-small cell lung cancer undergoing chemotherapy, anabolic steroids showed only a trend toward smaller loss of body weight, according to the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 2, 3
• Common side effects in women include virilization, hirsutism, hoarseness or deepening of voice, weight gain, menstrual irregularities, and breast hypotrophy, as reported by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology 4
• Most adverse effects are dose-related and can be minimized by titrating the dose to the lowest effective level, as recommended by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology 4
• Female patients taking oxandrolone can still ovulate and must be informed that conception is possible, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 4
• Women in their reproductive years should use additional contraceptive methods while undergoing treatment, as recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 4