Turkish Journal of Internal Medicine, cilt.4, ss.12-16, 2022 (Hakemli Dergi)
Background Although COVID-19 vaccines cannot prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2, they do allow
infected people to have a milder illness. In unvaccinated people, the disease progresses more severely
and the disease can be fatal. Both inactivated (Sinovac) and mRNA (BioNTech-Pfizer) vaccines are used
in Turkey. In this retrospective study, clinical course, radiological involvement and some laboratory
parameters that are important for COVID-19 were compared in unvaccinated and vaccinated patients
who were infected and followed up in the hospital.
Material and Methods Patients between the ages of 17-95 who were hospitalized in the COVID-19
isolation wards between June 2021 and November 2021 were included in the study. Various data of
patients were scanned retrospectively from the hospital registry system.
Results While there was no difference in the mean age, highest fibrinogen, D-dimer, ferritin, creatinine,
interleukin-6 (IL-6) values and COVID-19 PCR test negative times besides antibody levels, Group 2
(7.8 days) was found to be discharged significantly earlier than Group 1 (12.69 days) (p=0.046). There
was a significant difference in low-dose thoracic computed tomography (CT) findings between the two
groups (p=0.023).
Conclusions Our study results showed that regardless of the type of vaccine, vaccination against
COVID-19 reduces hospitalization rates, length of stay and prevents serious involvement in the lungs.