Sarcopenia and aseptic bone necrosis in COVID-19

Background. On May 5, 2023, World Health Organization announced the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the question of studying the long-term consequences remains open today and will not lose its relevance for many years. Respiratory syndrome is a common and most characteristic of this disease. But the more cases were identified in different countries of the world, the more significantly the data on various extrapulmonary manifestations and complications of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) were expanded. The accumulated information made it possible to consider coronavirus infection as a multisystem disease with a variety of clinical manifestations. Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is capable of affecting any organs and systems, the musculoskeletal system is no exception. The article highlights two rare pathologies of the musculoskeletal system that occur after a coronavirus infection – sarcopenia and aseptic necrosis. Sarcopenia is a muscular disease (muscle failure) characterized by loss of muscle mass and muscle strength with an increased risk of adverse events such as impaired mobility, deterioration in quality of life or death. Aseptic bone necrosis consists in spontaneous segmental death of the spongy bone and bone marrow in the subchondral parts of the epiphyses.

Objective. The aim of the work is to establish the distinctive features of sarcopenia and aseptic bone necrosis in Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on studies published in scientometric databases.

Materials and methods. A search was conducted for modern literary sources that highlight the topic of sarcopenia and aseptic bone necrosis in Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The search was conducted in foreign and domestic scientometric databases PubMed, MedLine, Scopus, Google Academy, RSCI. The search was carried out by keywords: COVID-19, sarcopenia, aseptic necrosis, postcovoid syndrome. The search was limited by the publication date. For further analysis, sixteen articles (eight in English, eight in Russian) published over the past five years were selected. There was no sorting by the language in which the study was published.

Conclusion. Sarcopenia and aseptic bone necrosis in COVID-19 are currently poorly covered in the scientific literature. Further study of this topic may find application in clinical practice, contribute to the improvement of methods of diagnosis and treatment of these pathologies.

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