Prolonged Diarrhea Following COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case Report and Literature Review

Prolonged Diarrhea Following COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case Report and Literature Review

Tetsuya Akaishi,^1,2 Takahiro Takahashi,³ Satoko Sato,⁴ Xiaoyi Jin,³ Atsushi Masamune³ and Tadashi Ishii^1,2

¹Department of Education and Support for Regional Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
²Division of General Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
³Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁴Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

Vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is currently underway across countries worldwide. However, the prevalence and characteristics of prolonged adverse events lasting for several months after receiving the vaccine remain largely unknown. We herein report a 46-year-old woman with prolonged diarrhea and vomiting after receiving the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. She had no notable medical history, including that of gastrointestinal diseases. She developed vomiting several hours after receiving the first vaccine dose and further developed severe diarrhea after 7 days. Several days after the second vaccine dose, her condition deteriorated, unrelieved by symptomatic therapies, including anti-diarrheal drugs. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed inflammatory changes in the entire segment of the small intestine with wall thickening. The upper and lower gastrointestinal and capsule endoscopies were unremarkable. The patient’s symptoms persisted for more than 6 months after the second vaccine dose. A Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database search suggested that diarrhea is observed in approximately 3% of all vaccine recipients, but a literature review indicated that prolonged gastrointestinal symptoms lasting for several months is very rare. In summary, a case of prolonged unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms, possibly based on inflammatory changes in the small intestine, is described. A literature search revealed that this type of manifestation is very rare, and further evidence is needed to determine the causality between vaccination and gastrointestinal symptoms.

Keywords —— adverse events; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); diarrhea; mRNA vaccines; prolonged symptoms

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med 2022, 257, 251-259.

Correspondence: Tetsuya Akaishi, Department of Education and Support for Regional Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital, 1-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8574, Japan.

e-mail: t-akaishi@med.tohoku.ac.jp