Post-discharge follow-up of patients with COVID-19: A Brazilian experience

The objective of this study is to evaluate post-acute symptoms in patients with confirmed severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 infections.

We evaluated patients with confirmed severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 infections. Post-acute symptoms were defined as symptoms persisting 4 weeks after the onset of the symptoms and classified as pulmonary, muscular, hematologic, neuropsychiatric, renal, and dermatological.

We recovered data from 565 patients (43.7% female) with a mean age of 61.1 years. In 18.2%, at least one hospital readmission was necessary and 11.1% died. In 62.6%, there was at least one persistent symptom, and 28.8% had more than one. Among associated factors, obesity, intensive care support, and mechanical ventilation were related to persistent symptoms.

The most prevalent symptoms were pulmonary and neuropsychiatric sequelae, as reported in previous studies. This finding underscores the severity of the coronavirus disease 2019 infection and the need for follow-up after recovery from the initial illness. Obese patients, those requiring mechanical ventilation, female patients, and increased hospital length are at greater chance of having persistent symptoms.