Mucormycosis in post-COVID patients: loose cannon waiting to fire at the anaesthesiologist

Abstract

Abstract Background Recently, several cases of mucormycosis in people with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been increasingly reported worldwide, in particular from India. As an increasing number of post-COVID patients with mucormycosis are presenting for surgical management, the onus is on the anaesthesiologists to adequately evaluate and optimise such patients. Case presentation We present three cases to highlight the anaesthetic challenges in patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) with debridement surgery for mucormycosis through a series of three cases. In our manuscript, two cases had comorbidities as a challenge uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension. The third case had difficult intubation due to a small mouth opening which was probably due to swelling and tenderness as a result of rhino orbital mucormycosis. Conclusions Proper anticipation, optimization and timed promptness to deal with the anaesthetic challenges pertaining to the multisystemic involvement and sequelae of mucormycosis should be done.

Keywords

• Mucormycosis
• COVOD-19
• Difficult intubation
• Anaesthetic challenge