Postcovid syndrome: illusion or reality?

Abstract

A novel coronavirus infection was described in 2019 in Wuhan, China. From the first months of the spread of the infection around the world, evidence began to appear that patients after recovery had various symptoms. Duration, intensity, and variability of symptoms varies among patients and are often not associated with the severity of the most acute illness. Recently the concept of post-COVID syndrome (post-COVID or long-COVID in the English-language literature) has acquired increasingly clear diagnostic criteria. Persistent symptoms and / or the appearance of delayed complications after 4 weeks or more from the onset of symptoms of an acute illness are commonly called post-COVID syndrome. This review provides information on post-COVID syndrome, its pathophysiology and specific organ lesions. Relevant data on the interdisciplinary management of patients who have undergone a new coronavirus infection will be considered and an algorithm for identifying the diagnosis will be proposed.