ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial population infections worldwide. COVID-19 has been reported to cause acute epiglottitis (AE); nonetheless, COVID-19-related AE is poorly understood by healthcare workers because of the disease's low occurrence. This systematic review aimed to improve knowledge of the clinical characteristics of COVID-19-related AE. We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature databases PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus, using various keywords and descriptors such as "COVID-19," "SARS-CoV-2," and "AE" in combination with the AND/OR operator. This review included 11 patients with COVID-19-related AE, all of whom were adults except for one 15-year-old girl. COVID-19-related AE was more prevalent in males, who accounted for 81.8% of patients. Patients with COVID-19-related AE experienced symptoms such as hoarseness, dysphagia, odynophagia, sore throat, and dyspnea. Hoarseness may be one of the typical symptoms of COVID-19-related AE. Five patients with COVID-19-related AE had coexisting diseases, including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and intracranial tumors. Antibiotics and steroids were commonly administered. Five patients with COVID-19-related AE underwent intubation and cricothyroidotomy airway management. Due to the low success rate of intubation, emergency tracheotomy is the recommended option for patients with COVID-19-related AE who present with more severe dyspnea. AE could be an uncommon manifestation of COVID-19, and SARS-CoV-2 infection should be considered as a possible cause of AE. Healthcare workers should be vigilant in recognizing COVID-19-related AE.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Epiglottitis , Adult , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Humans , Male , COVID-19/complications , Dyspnea/epidemiology , Epiglottitis/therapy , Hoarseness/epidemiology , Pain/epidemiology , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of various otolaryngological symptoms in patients with COVID-19 with regard to age, gender and pneumonia-related thorax CT characteristics. METHODS: This is a retrospective study conducted between March 25, 2020 and April 25, 2020. The anamnesis and medical files of 155 patients who applied to our outpatient COVID-19 clinic were evaluated. Patients with positive PCR tests for COVID-19 who were aged between 18-72 years were divided into groups according to the presence of otolaryngological symptoms. The differences between the two groups were examined. RESULTS: Of the 155 patients, 89 (57.4%) had otolaryngological symptoms. The mean age of the patients was 36.3 ± 8.1 years. Ninety-one (58.7%) patients were female, and 64 (42.2%) were male. Fifty-eight (37.4%) patients had received a clinical diagnosis of viral pneumonia with ground glass findings in tomography. The frequency of otolaryngological symptoms was higher in females than males (p: 0.029). The otolaryngological symptoms were also observed to be more frequent in the 18-30 age group (p: 0.013) compared to other age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Tinnitus, gingivitis, sudden hearing loss, Bell's palsy, and hoarseness can be seen in COVID-19, albeit rarely. Revealing the otolaryngological symptoms of COVID-19, and obtaining more information about the extent of disease will be useful in managing patients and their complaints associated with otolaryngology.