Cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19: Report of three cases and a review of literature

Abstract

BackgroundVarious cutaneous manifestations have been observed in patients with COVID-19 infection. However, overall similarities in the clinical presentation of these dermatological manifestations have not yet been summarized. ObjectiveThis review aims to provide an overview of various cutaneous manifestations in patients with COVID-19 through three case reports and a literature review. MethodsA literature search was conducted using PubMed, OVID, and Google search engines for original and review articles. Studies written in the English language that mentioned cutaneous symptoms and COVID-19 were included. ResultsEighteen articles and three additional cases reported in this paper were included in this review. Of these studies, 6 are case series and 12 are case report studies. The most common cutaneous manifestation of COVID-19 was found to be maculopapular exanthem (morbilliform), presenting in 36.1% (26/72) patients. The other cutaneous manifestations included: a papulovesicular rash (34.7%, 25/72), urticaria (9.7%, 7/72), painful acral red purple papules (15.3%, 11/72) of patients, livedo reticularis lesions (2.8%, 2/72) and petechiae (1.4%, 1/72). Majority of lesions were localized on the trunk (66.7%, 50/72), however, 19.4% (14/72) of patients experienced cutaneous manifestations in the hands and feet. Skin lesion development occurred before the onset of respiratory symptoms or COVID-19 diagnosis in 12.5% (9/72) of the patients, and lesions spontaneously healed in all patients within 10 days. Majority of the studies reported no correlation between COVID-19 severity and skin lesions. ConclusionInfection with COVID-19 may result in dermatological manifestations with various clinical presentations, which may aid in the timely diagnosis of this infection.