Clinical outcomes of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children and adolescents: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine offered to children among all available vaccines. However, limited evidence is available about the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 vaccines, especially among children and adolescents. This review offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine's current information on children and adolescents.

METHODS: The review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines; a comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases for research publications COVID-19 published between December 2019 and October 2021. All studies reporting on the outcomes of vaccinating children in their respective institutes were included.

RESULTS: A total of 78 vaccinated children and adolescents from six studies were included. The majority of symptomatic vaccinated pediatrics were males (71%). The mean age was 15.6 years, and the BMI was 24.1. The most common clinical symptoms were found in chest pain (35%), fever (32%), and myalgia (17%). The most common cardiac symptom in the EKG results was ST elevation, and 35% of vaccinated pediatrics had elevated serum troponin. The hospitalization, including ICU admission, was lower than in unvaccinated groups. Statistically significant associations ( p  ≤ 0.05) were found in two symptoms (fever and headache) between the vaccinated and nonvaccinated pediatric groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Although we found better outcomes in the vaccinated group versus the nonvaccinated pediatric group, more studies are still crucial to further understand the specific etiology underlying postvaccination, particularly myocarditis, psychological impact, and other cardiac clinical symptoms in children and adolescents after receiving the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine.