Factores clínicos gastrointestinales como expresión fenotípica de COVID-19. Revisión bibliográfica

Introduction: the appearance of the new Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its rapid spread, caused a worldwide health emergency. This virus mainly affects the respiratory system, but also the gastrointestinal tract.Objective: to identify if the secondary gastrointestinal manifestations to COVID-19 infection are an important phenotypic expression of this pathology.Methodology: a systematic search was carried out in scientific medical journals in the databases: Scielo, PubMed, SpringerLink, Wiley Online Library, Scopus with the following terms “Gastrointestinal manifestations due to COVID-19”, “Gastrointestinal symptoms due to SARS-CoV2”, “Gastrointestinal alterations in COVID-19”, published in English and Spanish between 2020 and 2021.Results: the most frequent gastrointestinal symptoms were diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, anorexia and abdominal pain. The physiopathology of gastrointestinal manifestations depends on angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2). The detection of viral RNA in feces as a diagnosis has been detected in 53.4% of infected patients, other methods described are not definitive. Finally, the treatment of gastrointestinal manifestations due to COVID-19 is symptomatic.Conclusions: the advances in the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, means of diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, show that secondary gastrointestinal manifestations occur in a manner and frequency variable, allowing to face this epidemic disease more effectively.