GASTROINTESTINAL MANIFESTATIONS OF COVID 19: A BRIEF REVIEW

Background: In Dec 2019, a series of pneumonia cases were identified in Wuhan, China with presentations similar to viral pneumonia which later spread worldwide and was declared as COVID 19 Pandemic. Most common presentation were fever and respiratory symptoms and less common symptoms include GI symptoms like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Objectives: The objective of this article is to review the gastrointestinal manifestations of COVID 19 patients and to understand its importance while diagnosing patients with COVID 19. Methodology: Pubmed database and Google scholar database were searched between Dec 2019 to June 2020 for studies including COVID 19 confirmed patients with GI symptoms. Findings: Many of these studies observed gastrointestinal symptoms like decreased appetite, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain to be present in a substantial no of COVID 19 confirmed patients. Conclusions: Failure to recognize COVID 19 patients with predominant digestive symptoms may lead to undue spread of virus for a much longer period and may lead to uncontrollable dissemination of the virus. Recommendation: All COVID 19 confirmed patients should be evaluated for GI symptoms also apart from respiratory symptoms. Patients with predominantly GI symptoms should also be suspected as COVID 19 patients during the current COVID 19 pandemic phase.