Cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 patients in a Hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, and global literature review.

BACKGROUND

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a myriad of cutaneous manifestations have been described in association with this viral infection. However, in Latin America, this kind of data is still scarce.

OBJECTIVE

In this sense, the goal of this study was to describe the dermatological findings observed during SARS-CoV-2 infection, in a Brazilian Hospital.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional, retrospective and descriptive study of 50 cases of new-onset dermatologic symptoms in patients with COVID-19, treated at Hospital Sírio-Libanês, from February to June 2020.

RESULTS

The patients (n = 50) were classified into 6 groups, according to the elementary lesions and the statistical analysis was performed. The most common cutaneous lesions were maculopapular eruptions (44%), necrosis, purpura, and livedo (32%), urticarial lesions (12%), pseudochilblains (4%) and papular-vesicular eruption (4%). In 46% of the patients the cutaneous lesions occurred in association with other symptoms, such as pruritus (38%), pain and burning sensation (8%). Lower limbs were affected in 44% of the cases, followed by the trunk (38%), upper limbs (24%) and face (14%). Cutaneous lesions were mostly found after other COVID-19 systemic symptoms, with a mean period between the viral syndrome and cutaneous signs of 5 days (SD = 6.1 days).

STUDY LIMITATIONS

It is a small sample, in a single-center study, with patients exclusively from a private Hospital.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients in Brazil have the same proportion of lesions as revealed in other studies in Europa. The compiled data is essential for a better understanding of cutaneous manifestations deemed secondary to COVID.