COVID-19 complications and sequelae in adults

Abstract

Through the time of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19), essential knowledge has been acquired about the short, medium, and long-term complications and sequelae of this disease, which are associated with the presence of some comorbidity in adult patients, causing slow recovery. Therefore, this narrative review article aims to describe the development of complications from COVID-19 in the adult population according to its short, medium, and long-term manifestation. For the selection of articles to be discussed, a keyword search was carried out within the Pubmed, Dialnet, Redalyc, and Google Scholar platforms to be able to discuss the findings of the sequelae. From the information analyzed, it was possible to observe the presence of complications and sequelae in patients with comorbidities, such as hypertension, overweight, obesity, and diabetes. Regarding the temporality of the manifestations, we can highlight those respiratory sequelae (acute respiratory distress syndrome, fibrosis, and dyspnea) are the most frequent and have been documented at least three months after discharge. In the medium term, the most frequent sequelae were related to focal neuropathies, followed by cardiovascular sequelae at the myocardial level. For a long time, psychological manifestations such as anxiety and cognitive impairment have been reported.­­