The scar on the lungs of some coronavirus survivors is worse than those who smoke, a Texas trauma surgeon said recently when talking about one of the possible long-term effects this new disease could have on its victims.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but the ‘post-Covid’ lungs look worse than ANY type of terrible smoker’s lung we’ve ever seen,” wrote Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall in a recent post on Twitter.
“And they collapse. And they clot. And the shortness of breath continues … and continues … and continues,” she added.
In a conversation with CBS Dallas, Bankhead-Kendall said that most patients with coronavirus she treated “show a severe chest X-ray every time”, noting that even those who contracted the virus but did not show symptoms – were asymptomatic – show a severe chest X-ray about 70% to 80% of the time.
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On a clean X-ray, explained Bankhead-Kendall, a patient’s lungs will appear black. In a smoker, the X-ray usually reveals white lines that, according to her, indicate scarring and congestion. With a COVID-19 survivor, an X-ray usually shows the lungs filled with white, indicating severe scarring and congestion.
“You will see many of these dense white scars or across the lung. And if you are not feeling any problems now, the fact that it is on your chest X-ray indicates that you may have problems later,” she told the news station.
“All survivors and people who tested positive … will be a problem,” she added later.
Experts are still studying the lasting effects that the new virus can have on those who survived it. Researchers have already identified what has been called a “long COVID”, when patients still experience some symptoms of the virus months after they recover, such as severe fatigue, headache, dyspnoea and anosmia, among others.
A study in October, for example, suggested that older patients, those with a higher BMI and those who are female are possibly at greater risk of suffering long COVID.
More recently, a study published over the weekend reinforced the existing evidence that the long COVID is a reality for many who contracted the new coronavirus, with researchers discovering in what is considered the largest cohort study on the topic to date. for some, certain symptoms of COVID-19 – namely fatigue and muscle weakness – remain for up to six months after the initial infection.
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The researchers found that about 76% of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 reported at least one symptom of the new virus months after discharge, the most common being fatigue or muscle weakness and sleeping difficulties.
“These results confirm that those with severe illness need post-discharge care,” concluded the researchers. “Longer follow-up studies in a larger population are needed to understand the full spectrum of health consequences for COVID-19.”