386 - Long-term Complications Associated with COVID-19 Infection

Background: In Michigan, 44,964 (68%) of the 66,269 COVID-19 patients have recovered. However, there is concern that COVID-19 infection may lead to long-term sequelae, including pulmonary defects, cardiac complications, blood clots, and neurocognitive impairment. This study describes the 30-day outcomes of patients who had recovered.

Methods: From 3/16/2020 to 5/19/2020, a follow-up was attempted for patients who were discharged alive from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and had recovered. Recovery was defined as being alive 30 days post symptom-onset. A telephone survey was conducted 30 days post-index admission and recorded in electronic medical records. Oxygen (O2) requirements, symptoms, readmissions and the need for antibiotics for secondary bacterial infections were evaluated.

Results: 585 patients met inclusion criteria and were contacted by phone; 303 answered their phone (Table 1), but only 266 (45%) completed a full telephone encounter and were included in the final analysis (Table 2). The majority were female (53%), black (80%), and discharged to home (84%). The clinical characteristics of those who completed the survey were as follows: 11% presented with O2 saturation < 90%, 16% had underlying lung pathology, and 57% had a BMI above 30. Patients’ average age was 61 ± 14.3 years. At 30 days post-index admission, 49% were still symptomatic. Of the symptomatic patients, 86% had dyspnea on exertion and 15% required O2 supplementation. 18% of patients were readmitted within 30 days, and 9% developed a secondary infection prior to the phone encounter. No statistically significant differences in demographics or comorbidities were found between symptomatic and asymptomatic cohorts (Tables 1, 2).Table 1. Results of Phone Encounters Performed on 303 Patients at 30 Days from Index Admission
Table 2. Comparison of Symptomatic Versus Asymptomatic Patients at 30 Days from Index Admission


Conclusion: In our study, almost half of the discharged patients remained symptomatic after 30 days with a substantial proportion experiencing pulmonary symptoms. A better understanding of the long-term pulmonary sequelae following COVID-19 infection is needed to design interventions to reduce post-infectious morbidity.