Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain. Not only Covid, but also Long Covid – the post-virus syndrome experienced in various forms by many recovered – affects the stomach and intestines, with long-term persistent symptoms. The Irccs Policlinico Sant’Orsola of Bologna certified them through an international research whose data, “taking into account the 17 million people” who have “fallen ill with Covid-19 in Italy alone, suggest that in the coming years we would have over half million people to be treated for gastroenterological diseases “. The study, called ‘Gi-Covid19’ and promoted by the Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology of Sant’Orsola directed by Giovanni Barbara, included more than 2 thousand patients hospitalized for Covid in 36 centers in 12 European countries.
The results of the data relating to the acute phase – explain from the Bologna hospital – were recently published in ‘The American Journal of Gastroenterology’. The researchers followed during hospitalization and for one month the patients hospitalized for Covid-19, highlighting that gastrointestinal symptoms, for example nausea and diarrhea, occurred more frequently in this group (59.7%) than in the control group (43 ,2%). After a month of hospitalization, those recovered from Covid continued to complain of nausea. The authors therefore concluded that Sars-CoV-2 infection can lead to persistent gastrointestinal dysfunction for up to one month. But there’s more, because the study also analyzed patients one year after hospitalization for Covid.
Part of the final results of Gi-Covid19, relating to the assessments carried out one year after hospitalization, were previewed in May in the USA at Digestive Disease Week. The data indicate that, after one year, 3.2% of Covid patients develop persistent digestive symptoms not present before coronavirus infection, compatible with the diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. “This disorder is characterized by the presence of abdominal pain and alterations of the hive and could therefore fall within the clinical spectrum of Long-Covid”, underlining the researchers, predicting, for the near future, over 500 thousand new gastrointestinal patients “post-Covid. in our country. The final results of the study will be previewed at the International Congress Ibs Days 2022 scheduled from 20 to 22 June in Bologna, at Palazzo Re Enzo. Epidemiology, genetics, diet, microbiota, inflammation, infection, diagnosis and therapy, list a note, these are the topics on which world opinion leaders will confront each other.