Related Articles Ischemic gastrointestinal complications of COVID 19 a systematic review on imaging presentation Clin Imaging 2020 Dec 08 73 86 95 Authors Keshavarz P Rafiee F Kavandi H Goudarzi S Heidari F Gholamrezanezhad A Abstract BACKGROUND Limited data is available addressing gastrointestinal GI ischemia in coronavirus disease 2019 COVID 19 We reviewed the clinical and radiologic features of GI ischemia and its related complications in thirty one COVID 19 patients reported in literature METHODS A systematic literature review was performed using a search strategy on all studies published from January 1 2020 to June 13 2020 and updated on September 6 2020 on databases from PubMed Scopus Embase Web of Science and Google Scholar Every study with at least one presentation of COVID 19 related GI ischemia complication and one GI imaging finding was included RESULTS In total twenty two studies and thirty one patients with the mean age of 59 12 7 age range 28 80 years old were included of which 23 74 2 patients were male 7 22 5 female and one unknown gender The significant GI imaging findings include mesenteric arterial or venous thromboembolism followed by small bowel ischemia Nine patients 29 presented with arterial compromise due to superior mesenteric thromboembolism resulting in bowel ischemia Also 6 patients 19 3 demonstrated occlusive thrombosis of the portal system and superior mesenteric vein More than two thirds of patients 20 64 5 required laparotomy and bowel resection Eventually five 16 1 patients were discharged of whom four cases 12 9 readmitted Five 16 1 patients remained ICU hospitalized at the report time and 12 38 7 patients died CONCLUSION Macrovascular arterial venous thrombosis is identified in almost half of COVID 19 patients with bowel ischemia Overall mortality in COVID 19 patients with GI ischemia and radiologically evident mesenteric thrombotic occlusion was 38 7 and 40 retrospectively PMID 33341452 PubMed as supplied by publisher