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Post-COVID-19 enterocolitis - a cause of rebellious diarrhea, acute abdomen and liver failure
Cosmin Vasile Obleagă1, Rukie Ana Maria Ahmet, Dan Nicolae Florescu
1Department of Medical Oncology, Department of Extreme Conditions Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Romania; liliana.streba@umfcv.ro, dragos.popescu@umfcv.ro.
Insights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents with diverse gastrointestinal symptoms, mimicking infectious enterocolitis. Some patients developed peritonitis due to colonic necrosis, while others improved with empirical therapy.
Area of Science:
- Gastroenterology
- Infectious Diseases
- Internal Medicine
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, initially presented as a respiratory illness.
- Increasingly, gastrointestinal and hepatic manifestations of COVID-19 have been reported.
- The complex pathophysiology and semiology of COVID-19 require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze patients with COVID-19 presenting with predominantly digestive symptoms.
- To describe the clinical presentation and outcomes of these patients.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of 21 hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
- Patients were treated in General Surgery or Gastroenterology departments.
- Clinical data focused on digestive symptoms and disease evolution.
Main Results:
- Patients exhibited symptoms consistent with infectious enterocolitis, despite negative stool cultures for pathogenic bacteria.
- Some patients developed peritonitis secondary to colonic necrosis.
- Other patients experienced remission of symptoms with empirical treatment.
Conclusions:
- COVID-19 can manifest with significant gastrointestinal symptoms, presenting as enterocolitis.
- Complications such as peritonitis and colonic necrosis can occur.
- Empirical therapy may lead to symptom remission in some cases.
Abstract:
Currently, worldwide, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, is capsizing the medical system and turning the attention of the entire healthcare system through the many aspects it presents, both from a pathophysiological and from a semiological view, insufficiently studied aspects. With a high rate of morbidity and mortality, the COVID-19 pandemic was initially observed as a pathology leading to a severe acute respiratory syndrome, but over time gastrointestinal and hepatic manifestations have been reported. The study includes an analysis of 21 patients in the stage of the clinical disease of COVID-19 or in the stage of recovery, hospitalized in the Departments of General Surgery II or Gastroenterology, Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Craiova, Romania, with predominantly digestive symptoms, with the clinical expression of infectious enterocolitis, although stool culture was negative for pathogenic bacteria. The evolution of patients was influenced by the appearance of peritonitis through colonic necrosis or remission of clinical symptoms under empirical therapy.
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