Gastrointestinal Manifestations and Dynamics of Liver Enzymes in Children and Adolescents with COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

To improve the knowledge on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) infection, we aimed to study the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms and the dynamics of liver enzymes in children infected with COVID-19.

We performed a systematic search of all the articles published up to May 2020 in the following databases: PubMed-MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane. We chose the fixed- or random-effect model for analysis based on the I2 statistic. The included data were analyzed to identify the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms (diarrhea, vomiting or nausea) and to identify the dynamics of liver enzymes in children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID-19.

We detected an overall prevalence of all gastrointestinal symptoms of 26% (95% CI: 0.18 - 0.35). The pooled prevalence of diarrhea and nausea/vomiting was 12% (95% CI: 0.08 - 0.16) with no heterogeneity (P = 0.19; I2 = 23.53%) and 11% (95% CI: 0.05 - 0.17), respectively. The pooled prevalence of elevated ALT and AST and LDH was 12% (95% CI: 0.07 - 0.17), 14% (95% CI: 0.10 - 0.18) and 33% (95% CI: 0.12 - 0.54), respectively among the included studies.

According to our systematic review and meta-analysis, 26% of the children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID-19 present gastrointestinal symptoms. This paper has provided a comprehensive overview of the prevalence of digestive symptoms of COVID-19 and of the liver enzymes dynamics in children and adolescents.