Histo-Pathological Findings of Critical COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Case Series

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the histo-pathological findings in lung biopsies of critical COVID-19 cases. Study Design: Case series. Place and Duration of Study Pakistan Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jul to Dec 2020. Methodology: Deceased patients who remained on ventilatory support with a confirmatory diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 both by PCR and radiological evidence on HRCT and clinically established severity of disease as per CALL scoring were included in the study. Written informed consent for lung biopsy was taken from the deceased's next of kin Result: Mean age of the study group was 67.20 ± 6.01 years. The patients had a mean high resolution computed tomography score of 36.73 ± 1.59, and the mean CALL score was 12.73 ± 0.691 on admission. The average time after intensive care unit admission to intubation was 1.23 ± 0.50 days. Histopathological examination of the lung biopsy showed 27 (87.1%) patients had the exudative stage of adult respiratory distress syndrome while three (9.7%) patients had a proliferative stage of adult respiratory distress syndrome. Conclusion: Histopathological findings of an exudative stage of adult respiratory distress syndrome in the lung biopsies of critical COVID-19 showed no significant difference with typical adult respiratory distress syndrome and are correlated with very high mortality rates in critical COVID-19. © 2022, Army Medical College. All rights reserved.