COVID-19 Associated Fatality from Invasive Rhino-Sinusitis in an Immunocompetent Patient

Case Report

Volume 5, Issue 3 (March Issue)

COVID-19 Associated Fatality from Invasive Rhino-Sinusitis in an Immunocompetent Patient

Roche Conor^1,4*, Floyd Edward Randall^2,4, Nagpal Avish^3,4 and Zreik Khaled^1,4

¹Department of General Surgery, Sanford Health Fargo ND
²Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Sanford Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
³Department of Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases, Sanford Health Fargo ND
⁴University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences

^*Corresponding author: Roche Conor, Department of General Surgery, Sanford Health Fargo ND, United States. E-mail: conor.s.roche@und.edu

Received: January 02, 2023; Accepted: January 14, 2023; Published: February 15, 2023

Citation: Conor R, Rand FE, Avish N, Khaled Z. COVID-19 Associated Fatality from Invasive Rhino-Sinusitis in an Immunocompetent Patient. Clin Image Case Rep J. 2023; 5(2): 300.

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Abstract

Background: COVID 19 infections has been associated with invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised patients and those given immunomodulating medications to help treat COVID 19. These fungal infections have a high mortality and often require emergent and extensive surgical debridement. We present a case where an immunocompetent young female patient that did not receive any interventions for her COVID 19 infection and had resolution of her respiratory symptoms, but eventually succumbed to mucor rhinosinusitis.

Case Presentation: In this case report, we describe a 41-year-old unvaccinated female with recent COVID 19 infection. The patient was initially monitored in the outpatient setting but developed invasive fungal rhinosinusitis, which led to a precipitous clinical decline despite multiple surgical debridements, eventually resulting in death within days.

Conclusions: The patient in this report had no treatment for COVID 19 that might have caused iatrogenic immunomodulation. It is the authors’ contention that the patient’s COVID-19 infection contributed to mucosal sloughing, which, in conjunction with diabetic status, facilitated fungal angioinvasion that progressed into invasive fungal sinusitis.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mucor; Rhizopus; Invasive rhinosinusitis; Diabetic complications