A Tragic Tale of Mucormycosis and COVID-19: An Observational Study to Identify Predisposing Risk Factors and Outcomes in a Tertiary Care Centre in Central India

Objective The incidence of mucormycosis, an angioinvasive fungal infection, peaked in India affecting COVID-19 patients. The primary objective of our study was to identify the predisposing risk factors for its development in our country. The secondary objective of our study was to describe the factors affecting the anaesthetic management and the outcome of mucormycosis patients. Methods This was a retrospective observational hospital-based study. All the patients with post-COVID mucormycosis planned for surgical debridement in operation theatre were included. Patients with active COVID infection who tested positive by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, those with cerebral involvement and patients admitted for re-debridement surgeries were excluded from the study. Results About 86.6% of patients gave a prior history of COVID infection, while 21.1% did not have any prior history; 77% of patients were diagnosed cases of diabetes, 13% were newly diagnosed and 10% of patients were non-diabetics. About 62.2% of patients gave a positive history of hospitalization whereas 81.1% gave a positive history of use of steroids in some form or the other. Conclusions Among all the risk factors, history of COVID-19, presence of diabetes and use of steroids are the most important risk factors which contributed to the development of mucormycosis.