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. 2022 May 12:10:20503121221096602.
doi: 10.1177/20503121221096602. eCollection 2022.

Post-discharge follow-up of patients with COVID-19: A Brazilian experience

Luis Filipe Nakayama  1   2 , Müller Gonçalves Urias  2   3 , Arthur Sevalho Gonçalves  2   3 , Rafael Amorim Ribeiro  2   3 , Tiago de Almeida Macruz  2   3 , Rafael Baptista Pardo  2   3
Affiliations

Post-discharge follow-up of patients with COVID-19: A Brazilian experience

Luis Filipe Nakayama et al. SAGE Open Med. .

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate post-acute symptoms in patients with confirmed severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 infections.

Methods: We evaluated patients with confirmed severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 infections. Post-acute symptoms were defined as symptoms persisting 4 weeks after the onset of the symptoms and classified as pulmonary, muscular, hematologic, neuropsychiatric, renal, and dermatological.

Results: We recovered data from 565 patients (43.7% female) with a mean age of 61.1 years. In 18.2%, at least one hospital readmission was necessary and 11.1% died. In 62.6%, there was at least one persistent symptom, and 28.8% had more than one. Among associated factors, obesity, intensive care support, and mechanical ventilation were related to persistent symptoms.

Conclusion: The most prevalent symptoms were pulmonary and neuropsychiatric sequelae, as reported in previous studies. This finding underscores the severity of the coronavirus disease 2019 infection and the need for follow-up after recovery from the initial illness. Obese patients, those requiring mechanical ventilation, female patients, and increased hospital length are at greater chance of having persistent symptoms.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; post-COVID; post-COVID syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of patients’ selection: total patient admission, hospital discharge, deaths, missing contact, and enrolled patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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