Copyright
©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Current systematic reviews and meta-analyses of COVID-19
Mahmoud Nassar, Nso Nso, Mostafa Alfishawy, Anastasia Novikov, Salim Yaghi, Luis Medina, Bahtiyar Toz, Sofia Lakhdar, Zarwa Idrees, Yungmin Kim, Dawa Ongyal Gurung, Raheel S Siddiqui, David Zheng, Mariam Agladze, Vikram Sumbly, Jasmine Sandhu, Francisco Cuevas Castillo, Nadya Chowdhury, Ravali Kondaveeti, Sakil Bhuiyan, Laura Guzman Perez, Riki Ranat, Carlos Gonzalez, Harangad Bhangoo, John Williams, Alaa Eldin Osman, Joyce Kong, Jonathan Ariyaratnam, Mahmoud Mohamed, Ismail Omran, Mariely Lopez, Akwe Nyabera, Ian Landry, Saba Iqbal, Anoosh Zafar Gondal, Sameen Hassan, Ahmed Daoud, Bahaaeldin Baraka, Theo Trandafirescu, Vincent Rizzo
Mahmoud Nassar, Nso Nso, Anastasia Novikov, Salim Yaghi, Luis Medina, Bahtiyar Toz, Sofia Lakhdar, Zarwa Idrees, Yungmin Kim, Dawa Ongyal Gurung, Raheel S Siddiqui, David Zheng, Mariam Agladze, Vikram Sumbly, Jasmine Sandhu, Francisco Cuevas Castillo, Nadya Chowdhury, Ravali Kondaveeti, Sakil Bhuiyan, Laura Guzman Perez, Riki Ranat, Carlos Gonzalez, Harangad Bhangoo, John Williams, Alaa Eldin Osman, Joyce Kong, Jonathan Ariyaratnam, Ismail Omran, Akwe Nyabera, Ian Landry, Saba Iqbal, Anoosh Zafar Gondal, Sameen Hassan, Vincent Rizzo, Department of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/NYC H&H Queens, New York, NY 11432, United States
Mostafa Alfishawy, Department of Infectious Diseases, Infectious Diseases Consultants and Academic Researchers of Egypt (IDCARE), Cairo 11221, Outside of the US, Egypt
Mahmoud Mohamed, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville City, TN 38103, United States
Mariely Lopez, Department of Medical, St. George's University, West Indies 38901, Grenada
Ahmed Daoud, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 11221, Egypt
Bahaaeldin Baraka, Department of Oncology, Broomfiled Hospital, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, ESSEX, Chelmsford 12422, United Kingdom
Theo Trandafirescu, Department of Critical Care Unit, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/NYC H&H Queens, New York, NY 11432, United States
Author contributions: Nassar M, Nso N, Alfishawy M, Baraka B screened the articles; Nassar M, Nso N, Alfishawy M, Novikov A, Yaghi S, Medina L, Toz B, Lakhdar S, Idrees Z, Kim Y, Gurung DO, Siddiqui RS, Zheng D, Agladze M, Sumbly V, Sandhu J, Castillo FC, Chowdhury N, Kondaveeti R, Bhuiyan S, PerezLG, Ranat R, Gonzalez C, Bhangoo H, Williams J, Osman AE, Baraka B, Ariyaratnam J, Mohamed M, Omran I, Lopez M, Nyabera A, Landry I, Iqbal S, Kong J, Gondal AZ, Hassan S, Daoud A reviewed the included studies and wrote the manuscripts; Trandafirescu T and Rizzo V reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors confirm the absence of personal and financial interests impacting the outcomes of this research study.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Mahmoud Nassar, MD, MSc, PhD, Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/NYC H&H Queens, 82-68 164th Street Jamaica, New York, NY 11432, United States. dr.nassar@aucegypt.edu
Received: February 24, 2021
Peer-review started: February 24, 2021
First decision: March 31, 2021
Revised: April 13, 2021
Accepted: June 3, 2021
Article in press: June 3, 2021
Published online: July 25, 2021
BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has left a significant impact on the world's health, economic and political systems; as of November 20, 2020, more than 57 million people have been infected worldwide, with over 1.3 million deaths. While the global spotlight is currently focused on combating this pandemic through means ranging from finding a treatment among existing therapeutic agents to inventing a vaccine that can aid in halting the further loss of life.
AIM
To collect all systematic reviews and meta-analyses published related to COVID-19 to better identify available evidence, highlight gaps in knowledge, and elucidate further meta-analyses and umbrella reviews that are yet to be performed.
METHODS
We explored studies based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses with the key-terms, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), SARS virus, coronavirus disease, COVID-19, and SARS coronavirus-2. The included studies were extracted from Embase, Medline, and Cochrane databases. The publication timeframe of included studies ranged between January 01, 2020, to October 30, 2020. Studies that were published in languages other than English were not considered for this systematic review. The finalized full-text articles are freely accessible in the public domain.
RESULTS
Searching Embase, Medline, and Cochrane databases resulted in 1906, 669, and 19 results, respectively, that comprised 2594 studies. 515 duplicates were subsequently removed, leaving 2079 studies. The inclusion criteria were systematic reviews or meta-analyses. 860 results were excluded for being a review article, scope review, rapid review, panel review, or guideline that produced a total of 1219 studies. After screening articles were categorized, the included articles were put into main groups of clinical presentation, epidemiology, screening and diagnosis, severity assessment, special populations, and treatment. Subsequently, there was a second subclassification into the following groups: gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neurological, stroke, thrombosis, anosmia and dysgeusia, ocular manifestations, nephrology, cutaneous manifestations, D-dimer, lymphocyte, anticoagulation, antivirals, convalescent plasma, immunosuppressants, corticosteroids, hydroxychloroquine, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, technology, diabetes mellitus, obesity, pregnancy, children, mental health, smoking, cancer, and transplant.
CONCLUSION
Among the included articles, it is clear that further research is needed regarding treatment options and vaccines. With more studies, data will be less heterogeneous, and statistical analysis can be better applied to provide more robust clinical evidence. This study was not designed to give recommendations regarding the management of COVID-19.
Core Tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has left a significant impact on the world's health, economic and political systems. This study was not designed to give recommendations regarding the management of COVID-19. There is a need for future research to understand the scope of possible vaccines and prevention/treatment options in the setting of COVID-19.
