Platypnea-orthodeoxia in a patient with severe COVID-19 pneumonia

Abstract

COVID-19 pneumonia has a significant case fatality rate, and no effective antiviral drugs are available even after 9 months of the pandemic. The spectrum of COVID-19 disease ranges from asymptomatic cases to severe ARDS with myriad manifestations. Here we report a case of male patient with severe COVID-19 ARDS who improved after receiving standard therapy but again ‘deteriorated’ after being stepped down to ward. He complained of worsening shortness of breath and hypoxemia which was found to be mainly positional. After ruling out other causes, he was labelled as a case of platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome due to underlying lung involvement. It is important to be aware of this condition in the context of COVID-19 which can be easily diagnosed bedside with pulse oximetry. tribution predominantly involving the lower lobes [1]. Patients usually complain of dyspnea with varying severity, proportionate to the extent of involvement. Here we report a case of severe COVID-19 who recovered and was weaned off respiratory support, only to develop platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome (POS) during the convalescent phase.