Evaluation of patients of vaccine side effects after the COVID-19 vaccine

Postvaccine side effects were evaluated in patients presenting to our emergency department with complaints of vaccine side effects after taking COVID-19 vaccine, and new unknown side effects ranging from mild complaints to life-threatening risks, and frequency of all side effects were investigated. This study aimed to establish a scientific resource to identify the potential side effects of the vaccine.

Patients' demographic information, clinical characteristics, epicrisis reports, COVID-19 disease and vaccination histories, vital values, and blood values were examined. The SPSS 20.0 package program was used for statistical evaluation. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Notably, 13.1% of patients presenting to the emergency department started to have complaints after taking Sinovac vaccine, whereas 86.9% of them had complaints after taking BioNTech vaccine. Also, 36.9% of patients stated that they had COVID-19. All patients had a Glasgow coma scale score of 15 during admission. No patient was hospitalized, ventilator was not needed, and all patients were discharged. While the most common presenting complaint to the emergency department after vaccination was fatigue in 29.7%, the most common diagnoses after examination in the emergency department were myalgia in 32.1% and upper respiratory tract infection in 28.6%.

Results and conclusions of our study will guide healthcare workers and patients on the side effects of COVID-19 vaccine.