Opinion Review
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World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2020; 26(19): 2286-2293
Published online May 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i19.2286
Liver diseases in COVID-19: Etiology, treatment and prognosis
Jian Wu, Shu Song, Hong-Cui Cao, Lan-Juan Li
Jian Wu, Hong-Cui Cao, Lan-Juan Li, State Key Laboratory for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Jian Wu, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Third People’s Hospital of Yancheng City, Yancheng 224001, Jiangsu Province, China
Shu Song, Department of Pathology, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai 201508, China
Hong-Cui Cao, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Aging and Physic-chemical Injury Diseases, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Wu J and Song S wrote the manuscript, and contributed equally to this work; Cao HC contributed to the design, critically reviewed and revised the manuscript; Li LJ revised the draft; all authors reviewed and approved the final version.
Supported by Zhejiang University Special Scientific Research Fund for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, No. 2020XGZX052.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong-Cui Cao, MD, Professor, State Key Laboratory for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. hccao@zju.edu.cn
Received: April 22, 2020
Peer-review started: April 22, 2020
First decision: April 29, 2020
Revised: May 4, 2020
Accepted: May 14, 2020
Article in press: May 14, 2020
Published online: May 21, 2020
Processing time: 29 Days and 2.9 Hours
Abstract

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in Wuhan, China causing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Numerous studies have shown varying degrees of liver damage in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, in previous case studies of COVID-19, the exact cause of liver injury has not been clearly elucidated, nor is there clear evidence of the interaction between liver injury and COVID-19. This study will analyze the causes of liver injury in COVID-19 and the influence of liver-related complications on the treatment and prognosis of COVID-19.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Liver injury; Etiology; Treatment; Prognosis

Core tip: The study analyzed the causes of liver injury in coronavirus disease-2019, including direct effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on the liver, drug-induced liver injury, and with underlying liver diseases, and talked about the therapeutic schedule, according to different etiologies. We believed it would be benefit to manage these patients well and improve their prognosis.