Retrospective Study of Covid Related Hair Loss

The Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus two and primarily affects the epithelium of the airways.¹ Multiple cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 have been reported in the literature. Case reports citing many different types of exanthems and enanthems have been reported to correspond with the initial presentation and diagnosis of COVID-19. Some researchers have even described cutaneous symptoms linked to COVID-19 as an important presenting sign of the infection with COVID-19 in otherwise asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients.⁴

Hair loss has emerged as a frequently noted side effect of infection with COVID-19 and has been observed in many patients who have recovered from a documented COVID-19 illness.^2,5

Given the prevalence of the onset of hair loss in patients who have overcome COVID-19, we designed this retrospective study in order to evaluate the prevalence of hair loss, along with histological findings if hair loss was present and response to treatment in 200 patients who presented to our outpatient dermatology clinic for various dermatological conditions and reported a history of having recovered from COVID-19.

This retrospective study is based on a survey designed to evaluate the prevalence of hair loss in patients who have recently overcome COVID-19. One hundred patients who indicated that they have recently recovered from COVID-19 were asked if they have experienced hair loss after recovering from COVID-19. Data was analyzed based on gender and age of the patients who reported hair loss after recovering from COVID-19. In those patients who reported hair loss following recovery from COVID-19, hair samples were taken, and histological studies were performed to evaluate the nature of their hair loss. Their response to treatment was also recorded. Data was collected between the months of April 2020 and August 2021. From this sample of 200 patients questioned, 62 of the patients reported noticeable hair loss after recovery from COVID‐19. Among them, 24 were males and 38 were females. The ages of patients complaining of hair loss ranged from 16-82 years old.

On histological evaluations of hair samples from those patients who reported hair loss, it was determined that the predominant type of hair loss in patients who have recovered from COVID-19 was telogen effluvium, with 48 out of 62 cases having telogen effluvium on histologic evaluation. Twelve cases were reported to show evidence of androgenetic alopecia, and 2 cases were reported as histologically showing alopecia areata. Both