THE EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON HEMATOLOGY PRACTICE: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Disease-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). This outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and it has become a public health emergency of international concern. Most of the population is experiencing signs and symptoms similar to the flu and common cold. Despite that, alveolar destruction resulting in progressive lung failure has also been underlined. Although SARS-CoV-2 has been noted principally to affect the lungs, other system involvement has been described too. Hematological involvement has also been emphasized in the literature, including lymphopenia, anemia, cytopenia, and thrombocytopenia. The coagulation abnormalities and disseminated intravascular coagulation were observed in severe COVID-19 cases. This COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the hospital services, injured blood product supply, disturbed chemotherapy treatment, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation program. Hematological and immune abnormalities are often encountered in critical illness and have prognostic significance. Careful monitoring of hematological constraints at the outset and disease course is useful for identifying patients at high risk of severe disease. Moreover, patients with pre-existing hematological disorders are at increased risk of severe infection. Patients with hematological involvement usually experience a wide range of signs and symptoms such as shortness of breath, headache, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting, tachycardia, and tachypnea. The pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 has become an unprecedented challenge for the physicians and the hematologists. This review has summarized the data from published literature to describe the disease's hematological manifestations, and its implication on patients' management observed in COVID-19 cases. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, hematology, anemia, thrombocytopenia, lypmphopenia