Favipiravir Induced Acute Pancreatitis in a COVID-19 Patient

Abstract

There are a number of gastrointestinal symptoms and complications of COVID-19. Asymptomatic increase in pancreatic enzymes and rarely symptomatic pancreatitis are observed in this disease. This article describes a 37-year-old male suffering from mildly symptomatic COVID-19 infection, who received tablet favipiravir for his management. His condition was improving, when he developed acute pancreatitis, diagnosed clinically, biochemically and also with help of abdominal ultrasound. When he developed this, all typical symptoms of COVID-19 were improved. As a result, role of favipiravir in the development of this pancreatitis was suspected.
 J MEDICINE JAN 2021; 22 (1) : 69-71

The efficacy and adverse effects of favipiravir on patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published clinical trials and observational studies

“…After favipiravir administration, the clinical status improved in 74 cases, worsened in 48 cases (with 21 deaths), and was unclear in 20 cases. The reported side effects were hyperuricemia Hosoba et al, 2020;Ono et al, 2020;Takoi et al, 2020 ), fever ( Koba et al, 2020 ;Kurita et al, 2020 ;Takoi et al, 2020 ), lymphocytosis ( Dauby et al, 2021 ), eosinophilia ( Takoi et al, 2020 ), lymphocytopenia ( Atallah et al, 2020 ), hepatotoxicity ( Hosoba et al, 2020 ;Takumida et al, 2021 ;Yamazaki et al, 2021 ), nephrotoxicity ( Nasa et al, 2021 ), acute pancreatitis ( Khan et al, 2021 ), wood's lamp fluorescence on nails and hair, and nausea ( Aslan Kayiran et al, 2021 ).…”