Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Jan 12, 2023; 11(1): 29-37
Published online Jan 12, 2023. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v11.i1.29
Post-COVID-19 cholangiopathy: A systematic review
Maddalena Zippi, Sirio Fiorino, Wandong Hong, Dario de Biase, Claudio Giuseppe Gallo, Alfonso Grottesi, Annamaria Centorame, Pietro Crispino
Maddalena Zippi, Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Rome 00157, Italy
Sirio Fiorino, Unit of Internal Medicine, Maggiore Hospital, Local Health Unit of Bologna, Bologna 40133, Italy
Wandong Hong, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, Zhejiang Province, China
Dario de Biase, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
Claudio Giuseppe Gallo, Unit of Internal Medicine, Emilian Physiolaser Therapy Center, Bologna 40024, Italy
Alfonso Grottesi, Unit of General Surgery, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Rome 00157, Italy
Annamaria Centorame, Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Foggia, Foggia 71122, Italy
Pietro Crispino, Unit of Emergency Medicine, Santa Maria Goretti Hospital, Latina 04100, Italy
Author contributions: Zippi M, Fiorino S and Crispino P made substantial contributions to study conception and design; Hong W, de Biase D, Gallo CG, Centorame A and Grottesi A were involved in acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; Zippi M, Fiorino S and Crispino P were involved in drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content and gave the final approval of the version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare having no conflicts of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
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: Maddalena Zippi, PhD, Doctor, Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Via dei Monti Tiburtini 385, Rome 00157, Italy. maddalena.zippi@aslroma2.it
Received: August 25, 2022
Peer-review started: August 25, 2022
First decision: October 4, 2022
Revised: October 13, 2022
Accepted: November 23, 2022
Article in press: November 23, 2022
Published online: January 12, 2023
Processing time: 245 Days and 16.4 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cholangiopathy is a recently identified clinical entity that develops during the recovery phase from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Research motivation

Early recognition of this complication is critical to ensure prompt and adequate management, which could affect the prognosis of these patients.

Research objectives

The main objectives of this review were to identify the available data contained in the studies accessible from the literature concerning post-COVID-19 cholangiopathy.

Research methods

We have searched within two electronic databases (PubMed and the Cochrane Library) works on this topic, published between January 1, 2020 to August 22, 2022, using MeSH terms and free-language keywords: cholangiopathy; COVID-19; post-COVID-19 cholangiopathy; SARS-CoV-2.

Research results

Thirteen studies were included in this descriptive review, which included 64 patients suffering from this condition.

Research conclusions

This review analyzed the possible causes and the clinical course of post-COVID-19 cholangiopathy, aiming to understand both its possible causes and its consequent clinical evolution.

Research perspectives

Cholangiopathy is a medium-to-long-term complication of this virus, in which biliary damage is generally progressive up to liver failure. Researchers should focus on both early recognition and timely treatment of this complication.