Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan;54(1):17-21.
doi: 10.1007/s11255-021-03030-2. Epub 2021 Nov 17.

Long COVID and COVID-19-associated cystitis (CAC)

Laura E Lamb  1   2 , Ryan Timar  3 , Melissa Wills  3 , Sorabh Dhar  3   4   5 , Steve M Lucas  3 , Dragana Komnenov  3   4 , Michael B Chancellor  1   2 , Nivedita Dhar  6   7
Affiliations

Long COVID and COVID-19-associated cystitis (CAC)

Laura E Lamb et al. Int Urol Nephrol. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: There is scarce literature regarding genitourinary symptoms in COVID-19, especially post-acute disease otherwise known as Long COVID. We identified recovered COVID-19 patients presenting with new or worsening overactive bladder symptoms, known as COVID-19-associated cystitis (CAC).

Methods: We used the American Urological Association Urology Care Foundation Overactive Bladder (OAB) Assessment Tool to screen COVID-19 recovered patients presenting with urological complaints at our urban-located institution from 5/22/2020 to 12/31/2020. Patients 10-14 weeks post-discharge responded to 5 symptom and 4 quality-of-life (QoL) questions. We reported median symptom scores, as well as QoL scores, based on new or worsening urinary symptoms, and by sex.

Results: We identified 350 patients with de novo or worsening OAB symptoms 10-14 weeks after hospitalization with COVID-19. The median total OAB symptom score in both men and women was 18. The median total QoL score for both men and women was 19. Patients with worsening OAB symptoms had a median pre-COVID-19 symptom score of 8 (4-10) compared to post-COVID-19 median symptom score of 19 (17-21). Median age was 64.5 (range 47-82). Median hospital length-of-stay was 10 days (range 5-30).

Conclusion: We report survey-based results of patients suffering from new or worsening OAB symptoms months after their hospitalization from COVID-19. Future studies with larger sample sizes and more extensive testing will hopefully elucidate the specific pathophysiology of OAB symptoms in the context of long COVID so urologists can timely and appropriately treat their patients.

Keywords: Bladder; COVID-19; COVID-19-associated cystitis; Long COVID; Overactive bladder; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no relevant conflict of interest to report.

Comment in

  • Geriatrics.
    Griebling TL. Griebling TL. J Urol. 2022 Jun;207(6):1325-1327. doi: 10.1097/JU.0000000000002659. Epub 2022 Mar 23. J Urol. 2022. PMID: 35319258 No abstract available.

References

    1. Wang H, Ma S. The cytokine storm and factors determining the sequence and severity of organ dysfunction in multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Am J Emerg Med. 2008;26(6):711–715. doi: 10.1016/J.Ajem.2007.10.031. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sighinolfi MC, Rocco B, Mussini C. Covid-19: importance of the awareness of the clinical syndrome by urologists. Eur Urol. 2020;78(1):E40–E41. doi: 10.1016/J.Eururo.2020.03.029. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mumm JN, Osterman A, Ruzicka M, Stihl C, Vilsmaier T, Munker D, et al. Urinary frequency as a possibly overlooked symptom in COVID-19 patients: does Sars-Cov-2 cause viral cystitis? Eur Urol. 2020 doi: 10.1016/J.Eururo.2020.05.013. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Creta M, Sagnelli C, Celentano G, Napolitano L, La Rocca R, Capece M, et al. Sars-Cov-2 infection affects the lower urinary tract and male genital system: a systematic review. J Med Virol. 2021;93(5):3133–3142. doi: 10.1002/Jmv.26883. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dhar N, Dhar S, Timar R, Lucas S, Lamb LE, Chancellor MB. De novo urinary symptoms associated with COVID-19: COVID-19 associated cystitis (Cac) J Clin Med Res. 2020;12(10):681–682. doi: 10.14740/jocmr4294. - DOI - PMC - PubMed