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World J Clin Cases. Jun 6, 2022; 10(16): 5133-5145
Published online Jun 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i16.5133
Practical points that gastrointestinal fellows should know in management of COVID-19
Tevhide Sahin, Cem Simsek, Hatice Yasemin Balaban
Tevhide Sahin, Cem Simsek, Hatice Yasemin Balaban, Department of Gastroenterology, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara 06100, Turkey
Author contributions: Sahin T, Simsek C, and Balaban Y designed the research study; Sahin T, Simsek C, and Balaban Y performed the research; Sahin T, Simsek C, and Balaban Y analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tevhide Sahin, MD, Academic Fellow, Department of Gastroenterology, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Sıhhiye, Ankara 06100, Turkey. sahintevhide@gmail.com
Received: March 17, 2021
Peer-review started: March 17, 2021
First decision: July 3, 2021
Revised: July 31, 2021
Accepted: April 20, 2022
Article in press: April 20, 2022
Published online: June 6, 2022
Processing time: 441 Days and 14.7 Hours
Abstract

Pandemics obligate providers to transform their clinical practice. An extensive effort has been put to find out feasible approaches for gastrointestinal diseases and also to manage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related gastrointestinal conditions. Diarrhea, hepatitis, and pancreatitis can be seen in the COVID-19 course. Endoscopic procedures increase the risk of contamination for medical staff and patients despite precautions, therefore indications should be tailored to balance risks vs benefits. Furthermore, whether the immunosupression in inflammatory bowel diseases, liver transplantation, and autoimmune liver diseases increases COVID-19 related risks and how to modify immunosupression are topics of ongoing debate. This review aims to provide most up to date practical approaches that a gastrointestinal fellow should be aware on the problems and management of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Gastrointestinal diseases; Practical points; Endoscopy; Gastrointestinal fellows

Core Tip: Along with the rise of new gastrointestinal and hepatopancreatic problems during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, patients and physicians involved in gastroenterology faced serious challenges in managing diseases.All these necessitated modifying our daily clinical practice in COVID-19 era. Here this review provides guidance for diarrhea, pancreatitis, hepatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune hepatitis, liver transplantation, and endoscopic procedures based on most current evidence from the literature.