Histopathological observations in COVID-19: a systematic review

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has caused a great global threat to public health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 disease as a pandemic, affecting the human respiratory and other body systems, which urgently demands for better understanding of COVID-19 histopathogenesis.

Data on pathological changes in different organs are still scarce, thus we aim to review and summarise the latest histopathological changes in different organs observed after autopsy of COVID-19 cases.

Over the period of 3 months, authors performed vast review of the articles. The search engines included were PubMed, Medline (EBSCO & Ovid), Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus and Bio-Medical. Search terms used were 'Histopathology in COVID-19', 'COVID-19', 'Pathological changes in different organs in COVID-19' or 'SARS-CoV-2'. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2009 guidelines were used for review writing.

We identified various articles related to the histopathology of various organs in COVID-19 positive patients. Overall, 45 articles were identified as full articles to be included in our study. Histopathological findings observed are summarised according to the systems involved.

Although COVID-19 mainly affects respiratory and immune systems, but other systems like cardiovascular, urinary, gastrointestinal tract, reproductive system, nervous system and integumentary system are not spared, especially in elderly cases and those with comorbidity. This review would help clinicians and researchers to understand the tissue pathology, which can help in better planning of the management and avoiding future risks.