TITLE:
Covid-19 Associated Mucormycosis and Its Surgical Sequelae: A Systematic Review of the Literature
AUTHORS:
Rajae Zeroual, Imane Alansari
KEYWORDS:
Mucormycosis, Zygomycosis, Phycomycosis, Covid-19, SARS-Cov-2, Maxillofacial Prosthesis, Palatal Obturators
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
16,
2023
ABSTRACT: Background: The aim of this systematic review of literature is to know the characteristics of the patients with Covid-19 related mucormycosis, associated comorbidities as well as the use of steroids in people with Covid-19, the site of mucormycosis, the size and location of substance loss caused by surgical debridement, the contribution of maxillofacial rehabilitation in survivors. Methods: Using keywords, studies were selected from the following databases: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Science Direct and Google Scholar, including publications from 2019 until February 2022. They were filtered by title, abstract, and full text. Results: Among the 706 records identified from the databases, 28 publications were considered relevant and met the eligibility criteria, including 21 case reports and 7 case series. These studies included 69 patients with a mean age of 50.4 years, from different countries. Conclusions: Despite the the limitations of our review, we can conclude that mucormycosis is an opportunistic and deadly fungal illness in uncontrolled diabetes individuals who are immunocompromised. Physicians should be conscious of red flags such as previous Covid-19 infection, particularly in those who were hospitalized and given high-flow oxygen therapy as well as high-dose long-term steroids; metabolic diseases.