March 19, 2021

Bacterial Superinfections Among Persons With Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Comprehensive Review of Data From Postmortem Studies

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

Keywords (Tags): clinical characteristics, other infections

• Potential bacterial lung superinfections were found post-mortem in 32% of persons who died of COVID-19, with proven super-infection occurring in 8% of persons who died of COVID-19, based on a review of 75 published postmortem studies including post-mortem findings from 621 COVID-19 patients. Histopathologic findings in patients with potential lung infections demonstrated diffuse pneumonia was the most frequent manifestation observed (95%). Proven superinfection (direct tissue visualization, microbiologic cultures and/or postmortem PCR) were identified in 8% of patients. Lung superinfections were the cause of death of 16% of patients with potential bacterial infections for whom a cause of death was assigned. The most commonly attributed cause of death was respiratory failure due to COVID-19. 

Clancy et al. (Mar 2021). Bacterial Superinfections Among Persons With Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Comprehensive Review of Data From Postmortem Studies. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab065