Acquired tracheomalacia due to SARS‐CoV‐2 pneumonia
David Espejo, Marta Zapata, Saliha Omari, Xavier Muñoz, Maria‐Jesús Cruz,- Genetics (clinical)
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
- Immunology and Allergy
Abstract
Introduction
Several studies mentioned parenchymal findings after SARS‐CoV‐2 pneumonia, but few studies have mentioned alterations in the airways. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of tracheomalacia and to analyse the clinical characteristics in a cohort of patients with SARS‐CoV‐2.
Methods
The study population consisted of all patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 admitted a hospital serving a population of 500 000 inhabitants. Patients were visited between 2 and 6 months after hospital discharge. In this visit, all patients were subjected to an exhaustive clinical questionnaire and underwent clinical examination, pulmonary function tests and chest CT.
Results
From February 2020 to August 2021, 1920 patients were included in the cohort and tracheomalacia was observed in 15 (0.8%) on expiratory HRCT imaging. All patients with tracheomalacia also presented ground glass opacities in the CT scan and 12 patients had airway sequelae.
Conclusions
Tracheomalacia is an exceptional sequela of SARS‐CoV‐2 survivors.