Acute limb ischemia associated with COVID-19 in Basra province, Iraq

Abstract

Objective: To investigate acute limb ischemia (ALI) incidence, characteristics, and clinical outcomes at Basra Tertiary Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Methodology: This cross-sectional investigation included 53 COVID-19-infected patients with limb ischemia in Al-Sader teaching hospital from April 2020 to May 2022. Each patient's gender, age, smoking status, and medical history like diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and respiratory failure were recorded. Results: Mean age of patients was 63 ± 8 years. Out of 53 patients, 88.7% were males and most (67.9%) were 60 years old or more. 75.5 of patients were smokers, 50.9%, 39.6%, 22.6%, 28.3% had diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and respiratory failure, respectively. There was a significant association between embolectomy, actylase anticoagulant, death and amputation. 84.6% of patients with embolectomy had amputation while 80% who took actylase anticoagulant had no amputation. Conclusion: In covid-19 related ALI, amputation was common in embolectomy patients while it was rare in patients who received actylase. Most of deceased patients had amputations.