Evaluation of the Effect of Vaccination Status on Lung Involvement and Hospitalization in COVID-19 Patients

The spectrum of COVID-19 in adults ranges from asymptomatic infection to mild respiratory tract symptoms to severe pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiorgan dysfunction. In our study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of COVID-19 vaccine on lung involvement and hospitalization.

Cases over the age of 18, who had a history of contact with cases infected with COVID-19 or had clinical findings suggestive of COVID-19, who applied to the emergency department and who were diagnosed with COVID-19 by reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were included in the study. Age, gender, comorbid diseases, hospitalization status, thorax tomography findings, and vaccination status in the last 3 months of the patients included in the study were obtained by examining the hospital information system and patient files.

Our study included 496 patients. One hundred eighty-three of the cases were vaccinated and 42.6% (n = 78) of the vaccinated patients were male. Of the 313 unvaccinated patients, 36% (n = 113) were male. Comorbid disease was observed in 55.2% (n = 101) of the vaccinated patients and 38.7% (n = 121) of the unvaccinated patients. Of the 313 unvaccinated patients, 72.2% (n = 226) were discharged from the emergency department, 19.8% (n = 62) were admitted to the service, and 8% (n = 25) were admitted to the intensive care unit. Of the 183 vaccinated patients, 78.1% (n = 143) were discharged from the emergency department, 16.4% (n = 30) were admitted to the service, and 5.5% (n = 10) were admitted to the intensive care unit. In the vaccinated patient group, both the service admission rate and the intensive care hospitalization rate were found to be significantly lower than the non-vaccinated patient group (p < 0.05). Thoracic tomography findings of 32.9% (n = 103) of 313 unvaccinated patients were reported as CORADS 1-2-3, and thoracic tomography of the remaining 210 patients was reported as CORADS 4-5. The number of patients whose thorax tomography report was CORADS 4-5 was found to be significantly higher in the unvaccinated group than in the vaccinated group (p < 0.05).

In our study, it was found that vaccination significantly reduced hospitalization in COVID-19 patients. Although the mean age was higher in the vaccinated patient group, both the service admission rate and the intensive care admission rate were found to be lower.