Complications after recovering from COVID-19 disease

ABSTRACT

Background: There are many complications seen post covid ranging from fatigue, headache, shortness of breath to serious conditions like opportunistic infections, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, pneumothorax, lung fibrosis etc. The number of ACE-2 receptors is increased in various organs and this is responsible for the spread of the virus throughout the body, where it produces proinflammatory and profibrotic responses, thus leading to the various complications. Methods: Patients recovered from COVID-19 infection previously both clinically and microbiologically who had new onset of symptoms for which they presented to the OPD or emergency of the Department of Respiratory Medicine were included in the study. Repeat RTPCR negative patients, and age less than 18 years were excluded. Results: Mortality and complications of COVID-19 are more common in males than females. Patients with preexisting metabolic disorders like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease being inflammatory conditions, not only exhibit an elevated cytokine storm, but are also directly associated with increased replication of the coronavirus. age more than 70 years may have other factors contributing to the increased risk of complications. Patients with severe illness who needed invasive ventilations or long duration of hospital stay were more prone for tissue damage that led to persistent symptoms. The most common post covid symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, anosmia and mental disorders. However more serious conditions that includes hematological complications like blood coagulation, pulmonary complications like respiratory failure, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary thromboembolism, pneumothorax, pulmonary infections, cardiovascular complications like deep venous thrombosis, myocardial infarction etc. can also occur. Conclusion: COVID-19 is associated with a lot of complications there causes need to be studied in detail.