Newswise — A new study suggests that patients who contract COVID-19 and completely recover from all symptoms do not show evidence of lasting damage to the lungs.

The multicenter observational study looked at COVID-19 survivors who experienced asymptomatic, moderate or severe COVID-19 infections and underwent an unrelated elective lung operation for lung nodules or lung cancer sometime after recovery. While traditionally the focus of the examination is on the tumor that is removed, this study also focused on the benign lung tissue around the tumor that had previously been afflicted with COVID-19.

"Since the start of the pandemic, a big question has been whether COVID-19 will have long-term or permanent damage on our lungs," said Zaid Abdelsattar, MD, MS, senior author of the study and thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon at Loyola Medicine. "This research provided us with the rare opportunity to study the asymptomatic survivors of COVID-19 and make observations to help us answer this question."

Of all the COVID-19 survivors studied, none showed any detectable lasting lung damage that was directly attributable to COVID-19.

While autopsy reports of deceased COVID-19 patients and pathologic studies from patients with end-stage lung disease from COVID-19 report severe fibrosis, diffuse alveolar damage, perivascular T-cell infiltration, severe endothelial injury, intracellular viral particles and cell membrane disruption in lung tissue, this study indicates that the large majority of COVID-19 survivors can recover without significant lasting lung damage.

"Further research is still needed on why some patients recover completely, and others don’t. Our study shows that if you contract COVID-19 and then completely recover clinically and on imaging, your lung tissues are also likely to have completely healed as well without permanent damage" said Dr. Abdelsattar.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 116 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19, and more than 2.5 million people have lost their lives.

The study, "Pulmonary parenchymal changes in COVID-19 survivors," appeared in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

About Loyola Medicine and Trinity Health

Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a quaternary care system based in the western suburbs of Chicago that includes Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC), Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, MacNeal Hospital and convenient locations offering primary and specialty care services from 1,877 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. LUMC is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois's largest burn center, a certified comprehensive stroke center and a children’s hospital. Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its teaching affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Gottlieb is a 247-licensed-bed community hospital in Melrose Park with 150 physician offices, an adult day care program, the Gottlieb Center for Fitness, the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center at Melrose Park. MacNeal Hospital is a 374-bed teaching hospital in Berwyn with advanced inpatient and outpatient medical, surgical and psychiatric services, advanced diagnostics and treatments. MacNeal has a 12-bed acute rehabilitation unit, a 25-bed inpatient skilled nursing facility, and a 68-bed behavioral health program and community clinics. MacNeal has provided quality, patient-centered care to the near west suburbs since 1919.

Trinity Health is one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic healthcare systems in the nation, serving diverse communities that include more than 30 million people across 22 states. Trinity Health includes 94 hospitals, as well as 109 continuing care locations that include PACE programs, senior living facilities and home care and hospice services. Its continuing care programs provide nearly 2.5 million visits annually. Based in Livonia, Mich., and with annual operating revenues of $18.3 billion and assets of $26.2 billion, the organization returns $1.1 billion to its communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. Trinity employs about 133,000 colleagues, including 7,800 employed physicians and clinicians. Committed to those who are poor and underserved in its communities, Trinity is known for its focus on the country's aging population. As a single, unified ministry, the organization is the innovator of Senior Emergency Departments, the largest not-for-profit provider of home health care services—ranked by number of visits—in the nation, as well as the nation’s leading provider of PACE (Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly) based on the number of available programs.

Journal Link: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Jul-2021