A team of doctors at Wockhardt Hospital successfully performed surgery for post-Covid mucormycosis on a 60-year-old woman to save her eyes. Nagma Sheikh (Name changed), a housewife who is a resident of Mira Road, contracted Covid-19 in April and was admitted to a hospital for Covid treatment. Apparently, due to excessive use of steroids, the patient soon noticed symptoms such as intolerable headaches and blackish nasal discharge, nasal congestion, and swelling of the left eyes. She consulted various hospitals in Mumbai, but nothing seemed to provide her that much-needed relief. Finally, she was successfully treated at Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road where she underwent surgery for the deadly black fungus.
The surgery was performed by a team headed by Dr Sheetal Radia and Dr. Chandraveer Singh, Consultant Otorhinolaryngologist and Head & Neck Onco Surgeon.
Dr. Singh said, “On arrival in an emergency, the lady exhibited the symptoms such as blackish nasal discharge, nasal congestion, headache, and swelling of the eyes. By KOH mounting frozen section and MRI, it was confirmed that it is mucormycosis.”
Mucormycosis: Causes And Risk Factors
Mucormycosis or black fungus is a rare infection that occurs after exposure to mucormycetes mold. It affects paranasal sinuses, the base of the skull, eyes, lungs, and brain, and is common in people suffering or recovering from COVID-19 due to excessive use of steroids. This black fungus is seen in those with low immunity, irrational use of steroids, having high diabetes and other comorbidities, using dusty humidifiers, having prolonged hospital stay, and ones on medication that lowers their ability to fight germs and viruses – Dr. ChandraVeer explained.
According to the doctor, the woman’s infection had invaded the nose, base of the skull, eyes, and could have led to blindness, loss of body tissue, and damaged to the other vital organs of her body. Hence, the patient was scheduled to undergo surgery as soon as possible.
“The surgery involved removing the engulfing tissue where the cribriform plate of the base of the skull was removed and the Orbit medial wall was removed to remove the edema of an eye. Mucormycosis from all sinuses and base of the skull and medial wall of the eye was removed too. The mucormycosis is removed with debris tissue in 2 hours,” Dr. ChandraVeer elaborated.
