Abstract
Background: After recovery from COVID-19, patients frequently face so-called “Post-COVID-19 Syndrome” defined by clusters of persistent symptoms lasting for >12 weeks which may arise from any system in the body. The long-term health consequences of COVID-19 in maintenance hemodialyzed (HD) patients remain to be investigated. Methods: In this longitudinal cohort study we described the health consequences in HD patients requiring hospitalization due to COVID-19. They were interviewed three and six months (M3 and M6) after discharge with a series of standardized questionnaires. Results: Of 144 HD patients discharged from the 7th Naval Hospital in Gdansk, 79 participants were enrolled, 39 m (49.4%) and 40 f (50.6%) with a median age of 70.0 (64.0–76.5) and an HD vintage of 40 months (17.5–88). After discharge, 93.7% and 81% reported at least one persistent symptom at M3 and M6, respectively. The most common symptoms were fatigue or muscle weakness (60.76% and 47.04%) and palpitations (40.51% and 30.14%). Dyspnea with an mMRC scale grade of at least 1 was reported by 21.5% before infection, and by 43.03% and 34.25% at M3 and M6, respectively. A decrease in the quality of life was reported in all domains of the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire but mainly in the pain/discomfort and anxiety dimensions. Mean EQ-VAS scores were 69.05, 61.58 and 64.38, respectively. Conclusion: Our study showed that HD patients may still experience persistent symptoms six months after recovery from COVID-19, which can further reduce their already poor health-related quality of life. This study highlights the need for long-term follow-up on these patients for diagnostic and rehabilitation programs.
Highlights
Recovery from COVID-19 can usually take several weeks in patients with mild to moderate symptoms
Three (M3) and six months (M6) after discharge from the hospital, all patients who consented to participate in the study were telephone-interviewed by trained medical students with questionnaires investigating specific persistent or emerging symptoms potentially associated with COVID-19 and the quality of their lives
A total of 206 adult HD patients were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 between
Summary
Recovery from COVID-19 can usually take several weeks in patients with mild to moderate symptoms. Some patients fully recover, several observational studies have shown that a large proportion of subjects suffer from debilitating symptoms weeks and even months after COVID-19 diagnosis; among these symptoms the most common are fatigue, shortness of breath, chest tightness, headache and muscle pain [1,2] This so-called “long COVID-19 syndrome” is defined as persistent symptoms and/or delayed or long-term complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond four weeks from the onset of symptoms, and includes subacute or ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 (4–12 weeks beyond acute COVID-19); and post-COVID-19 syndrome, which includes symptoms and abnormalities persisting or present beyond 12 weeks from the onset of acute COVID-19, and not attributable to alternative diagnoses [3]. Dyspnea with an mMRC scale grade of at least 1 was reported by 21.5% before infection, and by 43.03% and 34.25% at M3 and M6, respectively
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