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Review
. 2023 Aug;55(8):1977-1984.
doi: 10.1007/s11255-023-03528-x. Epub 2023 Feb 24.

Long-term interplay between COVID-19 and chronic kidney disease

Helmut Schiffl  1 , Susanne M Lang  2
Affiliations
Review

Long-term interplay between COVID-19 and chronic kidney disease

Helmut Schiffl et al. Int Urol Nephrol. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic may have an impact on the long-term kidney function of survivors. The clinical relevance is not clear.

Methods: This review summarises the currently published data.

Results: There is a bidirectional relationship between chronic kidney disease and COVID-19 disease. Chronic kidney diseases due to primary kidney disease or chronic conditions affecting kidneys increase the susceptibility to COVID-19 infection, the risks for progression and critical COVID-19 disease (with acute or acute-on-chronic kidney damage), and death. Patients who have survived COVID-19 face an increased risk of worse kidney outcomes in the post-acute phase of the disease. Of clinical significance, COVID-19 may predispose surviving patients to chronic kidney disease, independently of clinically apparent acute kidney injury (AKI). The increased risk of post-acute renal dysfunction of COVID-19 patients can be graded according to the severity of the acute infection (non-hospitalised, hospitalised or ICU patients). The burden of chronic kidney disease developing after COVID-19 is currently unknown.

Conclusion: Post-acute COVID-19 care should include close attention to kidney function. Future prospective large-scale studies are needed with long and complete follow-up periods, assessing kidney function using novel markers of kidney function/damage, urinalysis and biopsy studies.

Keywords: Acute kidney injury; COVID-19; Chronic kidney disease; Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no non-financial or financial competing interests, or conflicts of interest.

Comment in

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