An Account of Management of Patients of post-COVID Mucormycosis: A Surgical Perspective

Mucormycosis is a rare fatal fungal infection which has caused havoc in the present scenario of COVID-19 pandemic usually infecting post-COVID-19 recovered patients who were treated with corticosteroids or those who had ill regulated diabetes or immunocompromised states. The causative organism is a saprophytic fungus of the order mucorales and has a high affinity for blood vessels causing endothelial damage and thrombosis which results in necrosis of the affected tissues. Rhinocerebral mucormycosis is the most common infection being diagnosed in the current cases requiring the combined surgical approaches of an ENT Surgeon, a Maxillofacial surgeon and a Neurosurgeon. The disease may progress to involve the cranium thereby increasing the mortality rate. The first line of management in mucormycosis is antifungal therapy which may extend and also include surgical management by debridement/resection of the necrosed structures. In this article, we have reported a case series of 50 mucormycosis patients most of whom are post COVID, with the discussion of their demographics, affected structures, teeth mobility, blood sugar levels and neutrophil count with detailed description of the cases.