Cardiopulmonary complications following COVID-19 vaccinations: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines were insufficient to detect uncommon adverse outcomes that are crucial for risk-benefit analyses and informing clinical practice post-vaccination. As a result, the detection of infrequent adverse events has become a global research priority. The current study aims to estimate the rate of cardiopulmonary complications associated with COVID-19 vaccination.Two databases and one search engine were explored to identify English language-related studies published up to January 2023.The literature search turned up a total of 3974 relevant studies. Of them, 37 articles matched the inclusion criteria. The mean age of patients was 26.4 years, and about 77% of them were male. The most common reported consequence was inflammatory heart disease (myo-peri-cariditis) (77%), followed by pulmonary embolism (17%), and myocardial infarction (5%). The majority of complications were reported following mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations, particularly following the administration of the second dose. Pfizer has a slightly higher risk of cardiac complications following vaccination (4.1 per 100000 persons) than Moderna (3.7 per 100,000 persons). Although cardiopulmonary complications associated with COVID-19 vaccinations are uncommon, they can be life-threatening. Therefore, more large-scale observational studies and review articles of those studies are strongly recommended.