Abstract: Objective To summarize the feature of liver injuries, therapeutic medicines and disease outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infection. Methods 27 patients with severe and critical COVID-19 infection were admitted to our hospital between January 22 and February 22,2020, and their clinical characteristics, liver function tests in different genders and ages,therapeutic medicines and disease outcomes were summarized retrospectively. Results Among the 27 patients with severe and critical COVID-19 infection,22(81.5%) were males and 5(18.5%) were females,aged 29 to 91 years old,with a median age of 56.0(44.0-68.0) years old; among them,16 cases (59.3%) were in the young and middle-aged group (<60 years old),and 11 cases (40.7%) were in the elderly group (>60 years old); serum levels of ALT,AST,GGT,ALP,bilirubin,PTA,direct bilirubin and LDH were abnormal in 26 cases (96.3%) at early stage,and serum levels of total bilirubin and direct bilirubin elevated in 1 patient (3.7%) during hospitalization; there were no statistically significant differences between serum levels of ALT,AST,GGT,ALP,TBIL,PTA,DBIL and LDH between the male and the female group (P>0.05); serum levels of ALT,AST,GGT,ALP,TBIL,DBIL and LDH in the young and middle-aged groups were not statistically significant compared to those in the elderly group (P>0.05); however, the PTA level decreased in the elderly group (P<0.05); 22 cases (81.5%) received combined antiviral agents, 18 patients (66.7%) received combined anti-inflammatory and immune-regulating medicines,and 14 patients (51.9%) received combined hepatoprotective drugs; within 1 month after onset of the pandemic, the survival rate in our series was 96.3%. Conclusion Patients with severe and critical COVID-19 infection are prone to liver damages at early stage of the disease, which might be related to the medications or the virus infection itself should be elucidated further.

Key words: Liver injury, COVID-19 infection, Severe and critical clinical types, Retrospective analysis