Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) in COVID-19 vaccination: Demystified

The beacon of hope in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the development of vaccinations. However, once these vaccines were administered to the masses, there were some rare complications reported. The most concerning among them was the development of a condition which presented with thrombosis, commonly in the cerebral and splanchnic veins in the presence of thrombocytopenia. This development led to a ban on some specific COVID-19 vaccines in certain countries. This thrombotic thrombocytopenia was elusive due to its clinical presentation that mimicked other diseases including COVID-19 infection. This review was done following a methodical search in electronic databases including Google Scholar, Springer publication, World Health Organisation guidelines, PubMed and Cochrane. The data has been extracted and presented as a narrative review to help clinicians better understand and identify this post-vaccination phenomenon. This study revealed a two-fold benefit, diagnostic and therapeutic. While evaluating a patient with thrombocytopenia and thrombosis it is prudent to consider VITT as a differential as it helps avoid a battery of investigations to prove the disease aetiology. Also the duration of anticoagulation can be restricted to 3 months in VITT which otherwise would need to be continued life-long in unexplained thrombotic events.