Post-COVID-19 hematologic complications: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Introduction

COVID-19 crisis continues around the world. Some patients developed complications after the disease, which have been reported in limited studies. The aim of this study is to comprehensively assess the post-COVID hematologic complications in patients.

Areas covered

We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar between January 2020 and August 2021 using related keywords. Evaluation of the article was performed by two independent researchers. The extracted data included the number of patients, age, type of hematological complication, duration of follow-up, response to treatment and prognosis.

Expert opinion

Sixty-five articles reported post-COVID hematologic complications. The most frequent hematologic complication in COVID-19 patients is thromboembolic events, which often occur in two forms: deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). In a group of patients after the diagnosis of COVID-19, a significant decrease in platelets was observed, which was attributed to the ITP induced by COVID-19. Hemolytic anemia and aplastic anemia have also been reported rarely in patients. Finally, post-COVID hematologic complications appear to go beyond thromboembolic events. Although these complications have rarely been reported, searching for methods to identify susceptible patients and prevent these complications could be the subject of future research.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• hematologic complications
• thromboembolism
• thrombocytopenia
• SARS-CoV-2

Article highlights

• The most common post-COVID hematologic complication is thromboembolic events.

• The second most common post-COVID hematologic complication is thrombocytopenia.

• Some complications such as hemolytic anemia and aplastic anemia were rare in patients.

• The prognosis of these complications (except thromboembolic events) in patients is relatively good.

Declaration of Interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17474086.2022.2080051

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.