Postmortem findings in COVID-19 fatalities: A systematic review of current evidence

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Almost 17 months after the first COVID-19 case was reported, the exact pathogenesis of the virus is still open to interpretation. Postmortem studies have been relatively scarce due to the high infectivity rate of the virus. We systematically reviewed the literature available for studies that reported gross, histological, microscopic, and immunohistochemical findings in COVID-19 fatalities with the aim of reporting any recurrent findings among different demographics. PubMed and Scopus were searched up till the second of May 2021 and 46 studies with a total of 793 patients were shortlisted after the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The selected studies reported gross, histological, microscopic, and immunohistochemical autopsy findings in the lungs, heart, liver, gallbladder, bowels, kidney, spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes, CNS, pancreas, endocrine/exocrine glands, and a few other miscellaneous locations. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected in multiple organs and so was the presence of widespread microthrombi. This finding suggests that the pathogenesis of this highly infectious virus might be linked to some form of coagulopathy. Further studies should focus on analyzing postmortem findings in a larger number of patients from different demographics in order to obtain more generalizable results.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus disease 2019; Postmortem findings; Systematic review.

Fig. 1

PRISMA flowchart.

Fig. 2

Key postmortem findings on gross examination.