Histopathological Patterns of Cutaneous Adverse Reaction to Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines: The Integrative Role of Skin Biopsy

Abstract

The advent of vaccines represented a milestone to allow the slowing down and then containing of the exponential increase in ongoing infections and deaths of COVID-19. Since the first months of the vaccination campaign in various continents, there has been a certain number of reports of adverse events, including skin reactions. We conducted a systematic review, searching on PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Library for the words: COVID vaccine, dermatopathology, skin, eruptions, rash, cutaneous, BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech), ChAdOX1 (AstraZeneca), and mRNA-1273 (Moderna). A total of 28 records were initially identified in the literature search of which two were duplicates. After screening for eligibility and inclusion criteria, 18 publications were ultimately included. Various clinical cutaneous manifestations and histopathological patterns following vaccination have been described in literature. The most frequent clinical-pathological presentations were erythematous maculo-papular eruptions in different way of distribution with histopathological pictures mostly represented by interface changes and mixed peri-vascular and peri-adnexal cell infiltrate. Other presentations included new onset of pemphigoid bullous disease (n = 15), delayed T-cell-mediated hypersensitivity reaction (injection site reactions) (n = 10), purpuric skin rash (n = 13), mostly localized on the legs bilaterally and symmetrically with histological pictures characterized by extravasation of erythrocytes in the superficial and middle dermis, and other types of reactions. New studies with large case series and further literature reviews are needed to improve the clinical management of patients and optimize the timeline for carrying out histological biopsy for confirmatory, supportive, and differential diagnosis purposes.