Disorders of gut-brain interaction in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome

Abstract

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the devastating pandemic which has caused more than 5 million deaths across the world until today. Apart from causing acute respiratory illness and multiorgan dysfunction, there can be long-term multiorgan sequalae after recovery, which is termed ‘long COVID-19’ or ‘post-acute COVID-19 syndrome’. Little is known about long-term gastrointestinal (GI) consequences, occurrence of post-infection functional gastrointestinal disorders and impact the virus may have on overall intestinal health. In this review, we put forth the various mechanisms which may lead to this entity and possible ways to diagnose and manage this disorder. Hence, making physicians aware of this spectrum of disease is of utmost importance in the present pandemic and this review will help clinicians understand and suspect the occurrence of functional GI disease post recovery from COVID-19 and manage it accordingly, avoiding unnecessary misconceptions and delay in treatment.

Impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in children with functional abdominal pain disorders: Data from long‐term follow‐up

“…[19][20][21] Due to the well-established occurrence of post-infectious IBS, 22,23 many GI experts hypothesized that the COVID-19 pandemic could have predisposed to a rise of FGIDs with many COVID-19 infected patients eventually developing FGIDs. [24][25][26] This hypothesis has been supported by some recent adult studies. [27][28][29] In a multicenter investigation including 883 hospitalized COVID-19 adult patients, Marasco et al reported higher rates of IBS according to Rome IV criteria in the COVID-19 group (3.2%) versus the controls (0.5%; p = 0.045).…”

“…Interest in understanding the epidemiology of COVID‐19 infection in adults and children affected by gastrointestinal diseases has progressively grown during the pandemic 19–21 . Due to the well‐established occurrence of post‐infectious IBS, 22,23 many GI experts hypothesized that the COVID‐19 pandemic could have predisposed to a rise of FGIDs with many COVID‐19 infected patients eventually developing FGIDs 24–26 . This hypothesis has been supported by some recent adult studies 27–29 .…”

The Effect of Acotiamide on Nausea as a Symptom of Chronic Nausea and Vomiting Syndrome after Coronavirus Disease 2019

“…Freedberg DE et al 7 2022 Review Tian Y et al 8 2020 Review Ghoshal UC et al 9 2022 A case-controll study Benbari S et al 10 2022 Systematic Review and meta-analysis Zhang Y et al 11 2021 Systematic Review and Meta-analysis ReddWD et al 17 2020 Multicenter cohort study Leung TYM et al 18 2020 Meta-analysis Xiao F et al 19 2020 Comment Chen Y et al 20 2020 Cross sectional study Cheung KS et al 21 2020 Systematic Review and meta-analysis Nobel YR 22 2020 A case-control Study Schmulson M et al 23 2021 Review Blackett JW et al 24 2021 Retrospective controlled study Blackett JW et al 25 2021 Review Fernández-de-Las-Penas C et al 26 2021 Prospective control multinational study Qian Q et al 27 2021 Prospective control study Marasco G et al 28 2022 Prospective control multinational study Golla R et al 29 2022 Review disorders develop after some infections, and COVID-19 causes post-COVID-19 functional gastrointestinal disorders (9). According to Benvari et al, SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be detected through children's gastrointestinal specimens for more than 70 days after the loss of detectable RNA in the respiratory tract (10).…”

Long COVID‐19 gastrointestinal related disorders and traditional Chinese medicine: A network target‐based approach

“…The GI involvement caused by Long COVID‐19 is related to both motility dysfunctions and gut‐brain interaction disorders (DGBI), classified by Rome IV, as a recent study by Nakhli et al highlights (Ebrahim Nakhli et al, 2022). Abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting are extremely common in post‐COVID‐19 patients, but also alteration of the intestinal microbiome and increase in inflammatory cytokines (Golla et al, 2022). Microbiome alteration also seems to be a key point for the onset of the GI sequelae induced by SARS‐CoV‐2 infection.…”