AUTHOR=D'Amico Francesco Enrico , Glavas Dajana , Noaro Giulia , Bassi Domenico , Boetto Riccardo , Gringeri Enrico , De Luca Maurizio , Cillo Umberto 

TITLE=Case Report: Liver Cysts and SARS-CoV-2: No Evidence of Virus in Cystic Fluid

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Surgery

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/surgery/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2021.677889

DOI=10.3389/fsurg.2021.677889

ISSN=2296-875X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia, caused by a new type of coronavirus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It quickly spread worldwide, resulting in a pandemic. The clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 range from mild non-specific symptoms to severe pneumonia with organ function damage. In addition, up to 60% of patients have liver impairment or dysfunction, confirmed by several studies by the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the liver tissue.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> We report two cases of symptomatic liver cyst requiring fenestration after recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Both patients had hospital admission due to documented SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recently, after the infection, they developed symptoms caused by an enlarged hepatic cyst: one had abdominal pain, and the other had jaundice. They underwent surgery after two negative swab tests for SARS-CoV-2.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Cystic fluid was sent for microbiological test, and real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 nucleic-acid assay of the cyst fluid was found to be negative in both cases.</p><p><bold>Discussion:</bold> Although there are no current data that can document a viral contamination of cystic fluid, there are data that document a hepatotropism of COVID-19 virus. Herein we report that after viral clearance at pharyngeal and nasal swab, there is no evidence of viral load in such potential viral reservoir.</p>