Article PDF :

Veiw Full Text PDF

Article type :

Original Article

Author :

Bhagyashri Jadhav, Neeta Patwardhan

Volume :

7

Issue :

4

Abstract :

Objectives: Respiratory Viral infections predispose patients to various coinfections and this may lead to enhanced disease severity and mortality. Despite the proven importance of co-infections, these are understudied during the large outbreaks of respiratory infections. Occurrence of invasive fungal respiratory superinfections in patients with COVID-19 has gained increasing attention recently. This study aims to assess Clinical & Microbiological profile of patients with invasive sinusitis in setting of COVID-19 disease at our institute Study Design: A retrospective observational study. Materials and Methods: Study included patients diagnosed with acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis (AIFR) suffering from or having a history of coronavirus disease infection over the period of three months.(April 21 – June 21). The patients’ presentation details, imaging findings, co-morbidities, management details, and follow-up information were obtained, recorded and analysed. Results: A total of 32 patients with AIFR with a mean age of 54.46±13.13 years old were included. Most common associated disease was diabetes mellitus (62.5%). Mycological analysis revealed most common fungi isolated from these patients were Mucor species.(56.25%) followed by Aspergillus species(15.62%) while coinfection with both of these species was seen in 5 patients.(15.62%) Candida species was isolated from samples of 4 patients (12.5%). Radiological studies of nose and paranasal sinuses showed that ethmoid (62.5%) and maxillary (46.87%) sinuses being the most commonly affected sinuses followed by Frontal (31.25%) and sphenoid (21.87%) sinuses. Peri-orbital invasion was seen in 5 (15.62%) cases whereas intracranial involvement was seen in 1 patient.(3.12%) In 8 (25%) patients only medical line of treatment was sufficient whereas 20 (62.5%) patients required surgical debridement during the treatment. 4 patients were lost to follow up. Overall survival was 90.62% (29/32) at the conclusion of the study. Conclusion: We are still learning the new and long-term complications of COVID- 19.The puzzle still remains unsolved about the cause and increased prevalence of invasive fungal infections in post-covid-19 population. High clinical suspicion and early and accurate diagnosis of AIFR in COVID-19 patients are essential for better prognosis.