Rhino-cerebral mucormycosis in patients with COVID-19: clinical cases and treatment in a regional hospital

Abstract

Mucormycosis is a serious fungal infection, which increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We retrospectively analyzed 5 histopathologically confirmed cases of rhino-cerebral mucormycosis, which were diagnosed in patients admitted to Smolensk regional clinical hospital from November 2021 to January 2022. All patients were older than 60 years of age and had a recent history of laboratoryconfirmed severe COVID-19 and were treated in infection hospitals. All patients had decompensated type 2 diabetes mellitus; 80% of patients had concomitant cardiovascular diseases (coronary heart disease, arterial hypertension), 100% of patients received previous treatment with systemic corticosteroids for COVID-19 in hospitals. All patients underwent surgical treatment. Antifungal therapy (amphotericin B) was administered, and one patient received posaconazole due to a lack of efficacy of amphotericin B. The length of hospital stay ranged from 14 to 56 days. The overall 3-month survival rate of patients with rhinocerebral mucormycosis was 80%.