Post COVID-19 Organizing Pneumonia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Introduction: Several observational studies have found parallels between COVID-19 pneumonia and organizing pneumonia (OP). This study aims to investigate the published literature of OP related to COVID-19, estimates the prevalence of OP among COVID-19 patients, and assesses the risk or COVID-19 severity associated with OP.

Methodology: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic electronic search through PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, EBSCO, and Google Scholar was conducted to include relevant and eligible literature. The authors used Review Manager 5.4 to perform quantitative data synthesis for the condition of interest analyses.

Results: A total of 9 eligible study articles and 12 case reports were included in this study. The estimated pooled organizing pneumonia prevalence among COVID-19 patients was 45.6% [23.1%-68.2%]. The association between OP and severe COVID-19 infection revealed a pooled OR [95% CI] of 5.22 [-0.96-11.41].

Conclusion: COVID-19 patients had a rather high OP prevalence (43%). Surprisingly, cancer patients with COVID-19 infection had the lowest OP prevalence. OP was identified as a possible risk factor for the severity of COVID-19 infection.