A Case of COVID-19 Presenting as Acute Liver Failure

  • Pankaj Nawghare Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
  • Sujit Nair Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
  • Shubham Jain Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
  • Saurabh Bansal Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
  • Sanjay Chandnani Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
  • Surbhi Rathi Head of Department, Department of Pediatric, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
  • Pravin Rathi Head of Department, Department of Gastroenterology, Nair Hospital, Mumbai, India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/scriptamed53-41392
Keywords: COVID-19, Acute liver failure, Children

Abstract


Although children with COVID-19 make up a small proportion of patients and have milder symptoms than adults, liver damage is a well-documented side effect of COVID-19 infection. Most liver damage caused by COVID-19 is modest. In this report, a case of a 6-year-old child who was hospitalised to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with COVID-19 manifested as acute liver failure is described.

References

1.   Ludvigsson JF. Systematic review of COVID-19 in children shows milder cases and a better prognosis than adults. Acta Paediatr 2020;109:1088–95.

2.   Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, Qu J, Gong F, Han Y, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet 2020;395:507-13.

3.   Redd WD, Zhou JC, Hathorn KE, McCarty TR, Bazarbashi AN, Thompson CC, et al. Prevalence and characteristics of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in the United States: A multicenter cohort study. Gastroenterology 2020 Aug;159(2):765-7.e2.

4.   Chai X, Hu L, Zhang Y, Han W, Lu Z, Ke A, et al. Specific ACE2 expression in cholangiocytes may cause liver damage after 2019-nCoV infection. BioRxiv 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.03.931766.>

5.   Zhang B, Zhou X, Qiu Y, Song Y, Feng F, Feng J, et al. Clinical characteristics of 82 cases of death from COVID-19. PLoS One 2020 Jul 9;15(7):e0235458. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235458.

6.   Bertolini A, van de Peppel IP, Bodewes FAJA, Moshage H, Fantin A, Farinati F, et al. Abnormal liver function tests in patients with COVID-19: relevance and potential pathogenesis. Hepatology 2020 Nov;72(5):1864-72.

7.   Kumar-M P, Mishra S, Jha DK, Shukla J, Choudhury A, Mohindra R, et al. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the liver: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. Hepatol Int 2020 Sep;14(5):711-22.

8.   Kelvin AA, Halperin S. COVID-19 in children: the link in the transmission chain. Lancet Infect Dis 2020 Jun;20(6):633-4.

9.   Saeed A, Shorafa E, Shahramian I, Afshari M, Salahifard M , Parooie F. An 11-year-old boy infected with COVID-19 with presentation of acute liver failure. Hepat Mon 2020;20(6):e104415. doi: 10.5812/hepatmon.104415.

Issue
Vol. 53 No. 4 (2022): Q4/December
Section
Case report
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).