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
Review
. 2022 Sep 6;14(9):1972.
doi: 10.3390/v14091972.

Pathobiology of Cutaneous Manifestations Associated with COVID-19 and Their Management

Affiliations
Review

Pathobiology of Cutaneous Manifestations Associated with COVID-19 and Their Management

Waniyah Masood et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a rising concern since its declaration as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. Recently, its association with multiple underlying organs has been identified that includes cardiac, renal, gastrointestinal, nervous systems, and cutaneous manifestations. Cutaneous COVID-19 findings have been supposedly classified into the following categories: vesicular (varicella-like), papulo-vesiculsar, chilblains-like ("COVID toes") maculopapular, and urticarial morphologies. In this review, we aim to focus on the proposed pathophysiology behind the various dermatological manifestations associated with COVID-19 and their associated management. We also included prevalence and clinical features of the different COVID-19-related skin lesions in our review. A comprehensive narrative review of the literature was performed in PubMed databases. Data from case reports, observational studies, case series, and reviews till June 2022 were all screened and included in the review.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 virus; chilblain-like rash; cutaneous manifestations; erythematous vesicular rash; maculopapular rash; morbilliform rash; papulo-vesicular rash; skin manifestations of COVID-19; urticarial eruptions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19. (a) Papulo-squamous lesions (b) wheal (c) petechia purpura and vasculitis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pathogenesis behind cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19.

References

    1. COVID Live-Coronavirus Statistics-Worldometer. [(accessed on 26 December 2021)]. Available online: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
    1. Behzad S., Aghaghazvini L., Radmard A.R., Gholamrezanezhad A. Extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19: Radiologic and clinical overview. Clin. Imaging. 2020;66:35–41. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2020.05.013. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Torjesen I. COVID-19: Omicron may be more transmissible than other variants and partly resistant to existing vaccines, scientists fear. BMJ. 2021;375:n2943. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n2943. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Recalcati S. Cutaneous manifestations in COVID-19: A first perspective. J. Eur. Acad. Dermatol. Venereol. 2020;34:e212–e213. doi: 10.1111/jdv.16387. - DOI - PubMed
    1. McMahon D.E., Gallman A.E., Hruza G.J., Rosenbach M., Lipoff J.B., Desai S.R., French L.E., Lim H., Cyster J.G., Fox L.P., et al. Long COVID in the skin: A registry analysis of COVID-19 dermatological duration. Lancet Infect. Dis. 2021;21:313–314. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30986-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed