June 26, 2023

COVID-related dysphonia and persistent long-COVID voice sequelae: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Highlights

  • A quarter of the COVID patients experience dysphonia during acute infection.

  • Seventy percent of these dysphonic patients have long-lasting voice sequelae.

  • Female has higher tendencies to develop dysphonia only during acute infection.

  • Identifying dysphonic patients and strengthening care programs are essential.

Lin CW, Wang YH, Li YE, Chiang TY, Chiu LW, Lin HC, Chang CT. Am J Otolaryngol. 2023 Jun 8;44(5):103950. doi: 10.1016/j.amjoto.2023.103950. Epub ahead of print.

Abstract

Purpose

Dysphonia is a common symptom due to the coronavirus disease of the 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Nonetheless, it is often underestimated for its impact on human's health. We conducted this first study to investigate the global prevalence of COVID-related dysphonia as well as related clinical factors during acute COVID-19 infection, and after a mid- to long-term follow-up following the recovery.

Methods

Five electronic databases including PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were systematically searched for relevant articles until Dec, 2022, and the reference of the enrolled studies were also reviewed.

Dysphonia prevalence during and after COVID-19 infection, and voice-related clinical factors were analyzed; the random-effects model was adopted for meta-analysis. The one-study-removal method was used for sensitivity analysis. Publication bias was determined with funnel plots and Egger's tests.

Results

Forest plot regarding the weighted prevalence of COVID-related
dysphonia in patients during acute infection.

Twenty-one articles comprising 13,948 patients were identified. The weighted prevalence of COVID-related dysphonia during infection was 25.1 % (95 % CI: 14.9 to 39.0 %), and male was significantly associated with lower dysphonia prevalence (coefficients: −0.116, 95 % CI: −0.196 to −0.036; P = .004) during this period. Besides, after recovery, the weighted prevalence of COVID-related dysphonia declined to 17.1 % (95 % CI: 11.0 to 25.8 %). 20.1 % (95 % CI: 8.6 to 40.2 %) of the total patients experienced long-COVID dysphonia.

Conclusions

A quarter of the COVID-19 patients, especially female, suffered from voice impairment during infection, and approximately 70 % of these dysphonic patients kept experiencing long-lasting voice sequelae, which should be noticed by global physicians.

PDF


No comments:

Post a Comment