Prevalence of Cutaneous Manifestations in COVID-19 Patients and Their Relationship With Disease Severity

Abstract

At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, highly accurate information about the clinical manifestations of the disease was not available, and the reported symptoms were non-specific and more related to respiratory symptoms such as fever, dry cough, fatigue, and sputum production. As time has passed, skin manifestations have been proposed as one of the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in some patients. Among all reported lesions, livedoid lesions appeared simultaneously with the symptoms of SARS-CoV-2, mainly in elderly people with severe infections, and were associated with the highest risk of the mortality of all skin lesions. Knowledge of the skin manifestations that may be the only symptoms of COVID-19 may help in early diagnosis and specific treatment. In the current review, the skin findings of patients in association with COVID-19 were summarized into the categories of maculopapular or morbilliform lesions, urticarial lesions, chilblain-like lesions, vesicular lesions, petechiae or purpura lesions, and livedoid lesions.