Late Complications of COVID-19; a Systematic Review ofCurrent Evidence

COVID-19 is a new rapidly spreading epidemic. The symptoms of this disease could be diverseas the virus can affect any organ in the body of an infected person. This study aimed to investigate the availableevidence for long-term complications of COVID-19.

This study was a systematic review of currentevidence conducted in November 2020 to investigate probable late and long-term complications of COVID-19.We performed a systematic search, using the keywords, in online databases including PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Up to Date, and Web of Science, to find papers published from December 2019 to October 2020. Peer-reviewed original papers published in English, which met the eligibility criteria were included in the final report.Addressing non-human studies, unavailability of the full-text document, and duplicated results in databases,were characteristics that led to exclusion of the papers from review.

The full-texts of 65 articles havebeen reviewed. We identified 10 potential late complications of COVID-19. A review of studies showed thatlung injuries (n=31), venous/arterial thrombosis (n=28), heart injuries (n=26), cardiac/brain stroke (n=23), andneurological injuries (n=20) are the most frequent late complications of COVID-19.

Since we arestill at the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is too soon to predict what long-term complications arelikely to appear in the survivors of the disease in years after recovery. Furthermore, the complexity of COVID-19behaviors and targets in the human body creates uncertainty in anticipating long-term complications.