Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) Related to
COVID-19: Review Article
Valeerat Swatesutipun MD¹, Teerayuth Tangpaitoon MD¹
Affiliation : ¹ Division of Urology, Thammasat University Hospital, Pathum Thani, Thailand
The pandemic of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) or Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still ongoing.
The outbreak of this new emerging contagious disease has impacted a wide range of sectors including health and economics. Much information
about COVID-19 has been discovered by many laboratories, and action taken in various ways as quickly as possible to inhibit the outbreak. It
was found that COVID-19 is a ribonucleic acid virus (RNA virus) that can cause infection among humans. Moreover, it can mutate and spread
contagiously mainly through the respiratory system. The most common symptoms are cough and fever. Many patients could develop to either
pneumonitis or respiratory failure. The SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect various organs, the main infections being in lungs and rectum. In these cases,
many laboratories can isolate the virus from oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swab and then apply the reverse transcription polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) test to identify the COVID-19 virus. Many of the viral infections can cause cystitis by immunologic response. There is a study
that showed the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be isolated from the urine sample. The patients had significant changes in urinary storage for frequency,
urgency, and urinary incontinence during infected period, which improved after the disease resolved. Moreover, there is a study that reported that
the COVID-19 patients who had the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) scores of 20 to 35 had significantly longer hospital stays, more
frequent intensive care requirements, and higher mortality rates. Therefore, physician and medical personnel should be aware of the irritative
voiding symptoms that might be the presenting symptoms of COVID-19. Furthermore, as many studies have shown that the virus can be excreted
in urine, thus, the virus could be contagious via urinary contamination.
Received 9 March 2021 | Revised 7 May 2021 | Accepted 8 May 2021
doi.org/10.35755/jmedassocthai.2021.06.12671
Keywords :
COVID-19, LUTS, Lower urinary tract symptoms, Viral cystitis
All Articles
Download