Introduction
The severe acute respiratory syndrome-causing coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been identified by the World Health Organization as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The coagulation abnormalities and thromboembolic events linked to COVID-19 have also been investigated in other research. The elevated risk of hypercoagulability, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and thromboembolic events in COVID-19 patients has been noted by these investigations. The relationship between COVID-19 and mesenteric vascular occlusion (MVO) has been examined in a number of research. The pro-coagulant characteristics of the virus, according to the authors, could be a factor in the mesenteric blood arteries becoming blocked.
Patients and methods
This is a prospective study that was performed on 50 adult patients who were admitted to El-Demerdash Hospital presenting with MVO. They were subdivided into three groups; group I: COVID-negative, group II: previous COVID infection, and group III: COVID-positive. Each patient was assessed thoroughly through full medical and surgical history, laboratory tests, and imaging studies. Follow-up of patients on a daily basis from admission till discharge and recording the progressive notes for each patient especially success of conservative treatment, need for surgical intervention, ICU admission, morbidity or mortality. The collected data were revised, coded, tabulated, and introduced to a PC using a statistical package for social science (SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0.1. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Frequency and Percentage were used for presenting qualitative data. test and Fisher Exact test were used to analyze qualitative data. value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
The study found that 24% of MVO cases were COVID-negative, 28% had a previous COVID infection, and 48% were COVID-positive. There was a significant association between COVID infection and MVO (<0.001). There was no significant difference between the three groups in terms of demographic factors or associated comorbidity. However, a significantly higher proportion of patients in group III required surgical intervention and had a higher mortality rate compared with the other groups (<0.05).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the present study implies that COVID-19 patients are at risk of developing mesenteric vascular occlusion and that the underlying mechanism associated with the two requires further investigation. The study highlights the need for physicians to monitor COVID-19 patients closely for the condition and that early detection and appropriate treatment could be critical in improving patient outcomes.