The Need to Pay Attention to Liver Problems in Patients with COVID-19 Infection

The recent outbreak of the new coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) since December 2019 has been an important threat to global health, and in the meantime, it is important to pay attention to the underlying diseases of the people involved and the role of these diseases in the infection process. The liver may be affected by exposure to the virus, drugs metabolized in the liver, inflammation caused by over activity of the immune system, and possibly the expression of receptors of similar pathways involved in the initiation of the inflammatory process is effective in the entry of more of the COVID-19 virus into the cells. Of course, liver is also exposed to damage.

In this review study, the content analysis of the texts related to the category of health and liver function in patients with COVID-19 infection has been carried out by examining the researches indexed in the international databases of PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus.

Considering that about 10% of patients with severe COVID-19 infection have major liver problems, it is an important challenge to evaluate the liver function and condition of patients during infection and after recovery. All kinds of liver disorders and abnormal levels of aminotransferases have been reported in nearly half of the affected patients, and even in some cases, severe liver damage has also been recorded. A previous history of hepatitis may be the reason for increased viral replication during SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In patients with liver diseases, attention should be paid to the changes observed in the primary liver disease, and monitoring and evaluation of liver function in patients with severe diseases should be intensified during treatment. On the other hand, the therapist must carefully identify and monitor the causes of liver damage in combination with the pathophysiological changes caused by COVID-19. Also, parallel to the active treatment of the primary disease, liver protective treatment should also be performed to reduce liver damage.