Unobvious long-term effects of COVID-19 for kidneys. The literature review

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 on the course of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has already been confirmed by researchers around the world. Basically, studying kidney damage in COVID-19, the authors pay attention to the new coronavirus infection in terms of the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) or mortality from it in patients with existing CKD, especially patients receiving hemodialysis or having a transplanted kidney, providing an analysis of mortality, risks and forecasts. However, there is still no published description of how this infection can affect the function of kidneys that did not have signs of CKD before COVID-19. Currently, studies devoted to the analysis of long-term results of observation and treatment of such patients are especially scarce. The review examines foreign and domestic studies concerning both the influence of chronic kidney disease on the severity of coronavirus infection and the risks of developing kidney disease after COVID-19, including the development of acute kidney injury and in the long term. This approach can highlight the relevance of timely identification of patients with developing CKD in the early stages among patients with COVID-19 for the purpose of their further follow-up and timely prescription of nephroprotective therapy. The search for literature sources was carried out using PubMed, Science Direct, eLibrary using the keywords “coronavirus”, “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “acute kidney injury”, “chronic kidney disease” and their combinations covering publications from 2019 to 2023 in Russian and English.