While
the long-term impact of COVID-19 continues to be probed by medical experts, the
initial fear that many post-COVID patients will develop lung fibrosis is
gradually receding in the medical community.

Even
lungs of patients who suffered a severe bout of COVID-19 along with pneumonia
are showing signs of recovery within three to six months, according to doctors
from a Mumbai hospital, The Times Of India reports.

The
study’s main author, Dr Sumeet Sighania, a pulmonologist from Kokilaben Ambani
Hospital in Andheri, said, “We found that in the maximum number of patients,
the lung function continues to get better.”

The
initial findings of the study were recently published in Lung India Journal.

The
team of doctors began the study because of concerns among COVID patients that
the viral infection would destroy their lungs. The researchers conducted lung
function tests on every patient and found that majority of these patients show marked
improvement in three months.

“We
found the majority of these patients, by the end of three months, showed very
good improvement in the lungs, both structurally and functionally,” Dr
Singhania said.

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The
published study contains results from only 42 patients who were treated with
steroids and Remdesivir, the antiviral. However, the medical team working on
this has since completed the study on more than 300 people, some of whom were
followed for a year.

Most
of the 42 patients who featured in the initial study were hospitalised with
pneumonia.

The
research on the long-term impact of COVID-19 on lungs also seeks to address a
debate within the medical community on whether to initiate treatment of COVID patients
with severe lung involvement on anti-fibrotic medicine.

Dr
Lancelot Pinto of Hinduja Hospitals in Mahim and in no way associated with the
aforementioned study told The Times Of India that discharge papers of many
COVID patients show they were put on anti-fibrotic medication.

“The
medication is unnecessary and I haven’t prescribed it to a single COVID patient
in the last six 16 months,” said Dr Pinto.

Anti-fibrotic
medication, by their own definition, are meant to arrest lung scarring or damage.
“They cannot reverse the scarring. So where is the proof that it helps COVID
patients with lung scarring,” Dr Pinto asked.

Dr
Singhania and his team at Kokilaben Hospital have found that even in select
COVID patients with significant lung scarring, things improve over a period of
time.

“The
study reveals that COVID pneumonia does not induce a progressive fibrotic
pathway in the lungs, at least at three months of follow-up,” the study
published in Lung India Journal said.