Bowel ischaemia in COVID-19 infection: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: COVID-19 disease was declared as a pandemic by WHO since March 2020 and can have a myriad of clinical presentations affecting various organ systems. Patients with COVID-19 are known to have an increased risk of thromboembolism, including cardiovascular, pulmonary and cerebral ischaemic events. However, an increasing number of case studies have reported that COVID-19 infection is also associated with gastrointestinal ischaemia. This scoping review aims to collate the current evidence of COVID-19-related gastrointestinal ischaemia and raise awareness among healthcare professionals of this lesser known, but serious, non-pulmonary complication of COVID-19 infection.

Methods: The proposed scoping review will be conducted as per the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework (2005) the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. A systematic search will be undertaken on different databases including EMBASE, PubMed and MEDLINE. Two independent reviewers will screen titles, abstracts and full-text articles according to the inclusion criteria and extract relevant data from the included articles. Results will be presented in a tabular form with a narrative discussion.

Ethics And Dissemination: Ethical approval will not be required for this scoping review. This scoping review will provide an extensive overview of the association between COVID-19 infection and bowel ischaemia. Further ethical and methodological challenges will also be discussed in our findings to define a new research agenda. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at both national and international conferences.