Respiratory follow-up after hospitalization for COVID-19: Who and when?

Abstract

Despite more than 148 million infected people, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) respiratory intermediate and long-term survivors' outcome remains largely unknown. Lungs are the main COVID-19 target organ, and 5-10% patients progress to critical disease including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [1]. Pulmonary function tests (PFT) performed at discharge from hospital showed that >80% of severe COVID-19 patients had lung function impairment [2].