Post discharge persistent dyspnea after covid-19 pneumonia

ABSTRACT

Introduction: While all initial attention was focused on the acute viral phase of COVID-19, it has now become clear that for some patients this acute phase is prolonged and accompanied by multiple symptoms, including dyspnea. Objective(s) to determine the profile of patients who have persistent dyspnea after discharge. Method(s) Patients hospitalized in COVID-19 unit who were discharged between October2020 and June 2021, were contacted by phone, at 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks after their discharge by two trained nurses and were asked to answer to a dedicated questionnaire, to collect post-discharge clinical symptoms A referring doctor was available to assist nurses. We considered patients who still had dyspnea at 2nd week, as having a persistent dyspnea. Result(s) We included 110 patients with a mean age of 63.3 years and a sex ratio of 1.75 M/F. Of these patients, 29% were smokers, 41.8% were obese, 38% were diabetic, 5% had COPD;and 5% were asthmatic. Average stay at hospital was 11.5+/-6.7 days. Persistent dyspnea was found in 15.4% (n=17) of patients with a mean age of 63.1+/- 10.9 (p=0.38). Among these patients, smoking (p=0.036);hypertension (p=0.002) and COPD (p=0.0026) were significant predictive factors, however, asthma (p=0.425) and obesity were (p=0.794) not significant factors. There was no significant difference regarding severity of the disease considering maximum need of oxygen (p=0.287) and mean CT scan extent lesions (p=0.617). Mean duration stay at hospital was significantly higher in patients with persistent dyspnea (12.8 days vs 11.3 days;p=0.021). Conclusion(s) Persistent post-COVID-19 dyspnea seems to be related to comorbidities especially chronic respiratory diseases and not to the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia.