Background:

COVID-19 pneumonia is a recently recognized disease that has spread rapidly throughout the world. The pathogenic foundations and histopathological changes caused by COVID-19 are not fully understood, which undermines the proper clinical identification of patients and the implementation of effective therapeutic strategies.

Objective:

to describe the histopathological findings found at autopsy of confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Methods:

evidence was collected by searching PubMed for English language publications, using the keywords: coronavirus, COVID-19, autopsy and acute respiratory distress syndrome in various combinations in 2020. Only five articles were found with information on the autopsy results of confirmed cases with COVID-19.

Results:

since the start of the pandemic in December 2019, seven autopsy reports of confirmed cases with COVID-19 have been published, collected in 4 articles. All autopsies have agreed on the main finding: diffuse alveolar damage with hyaline membrane formation, which correlates with the clinical manifestations of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Conclusions:

COVID-19 mainly produces alveolar damage, which consists of pulmonary edema with hyaline membrane formation, which is clinically expressed as an acute respiratory distress syndrome.

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