Solid Organ Transplants Caused by COVID-19 Infection and the Outcome of Transplantation Post-COVID-19: A Systematic Review.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has imposed several medical and economic challenges since its onset in 2019. This is due to its ability to target the respiratory system as well as other organs, resulting in significant impacts and necessitating organ transplants. Our goal is to compile information from the existing literature to investigate how COVID-19 affects outcomes following organ transplantation. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to target studies reporting post-COVID-19 complications. We included 45 studies reporting data related to solid organ transplants, where either the recipient, organ, or donor was affected by SARS-CoV-2. The majority of the included studies concluded that organ transplantation following COVID-19 infection could be performed safely and with similar outcomes to non-COVID-19 patients, regardless of whether the organ, donor, or recipient was affected by COVID-19. No deviation from standard immunosuppression regimens or surgical protocols was necessary either, further re-assuring the feasibility of these transplants as viable treatment options. This applies to organ transplants involving the lungs, kidneys, liver, or heart. However, there was a limited number of studies in some areas, which warrants the need for additional research in order to reach more concrete conclusions pertaining to COVID-19's effect on organ transplants.