Publication date: Jun 01, 2023
Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) primarily develop respiratory symptoms, which sometimes can be serious. Respiratory failure is the most common cause of death from COVID-19. This disease also causes gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. However, there are limited reports that severe GI disorders caused by COVID-19 can be fatal. Herein, we report three cases of fatal GI disorders caused by COVID-19. All patients developed severe pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation and venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-V ECMO) support. The respiratory status improved, and the patients could be weaned off support. However, severe watery diarrhea (over a few liters per day) developed after the onset of respiratory failure. The CT, endoscopic, and pathological findings were similar to those observed in GI graft-versus-host disease (GI-GVHD). Despite various efforts, the GI disorders did not improve, and all patients died of multiple organ failures associated with sepsis due to intestinal mucosal disruption. COVID-19 can cause fatal GI disorders and may have similar characteristics to GI-GVHD. Further investigation will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of fatal GI disorders due to COVID-19.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Coronavirus | covid-19 |
| Fatal | gastrointestinal disorder |
| Mucosal | multiple organ dysfunction |
| Organ | |
| Pneumonia |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | Gastrointestinal Disorders |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | Respiratory failure |
| disease | MESH | cause of death |
| disease | MESH | causes |
| disease | VO | report |
| disease | MESH | pneumonia |
| disease | MESH | graft-versus-host disease |
| pathway | KEGG | Graft-versus-host disease |
| disease | MESH | multiple organ failures |
| disease | MESH | sepsis |
| disease | VO | organ |