Doctors warn of post-Covid infections in skull, jaw and face

PTH, 60, a woman who contracted Covid-19 last December, started having headaches in February. Her left eye became swollen, and she underwent sinus surgery at a private hospital in Cu Chi district.

Three months later, her condition worsened when her face swelled up and pus leaked into her forehead and upper jaw. She was transferred to Cho Ray Hospital for treatment.

Doctors at the hospital said she had necrosis of the palatine bone and decided to perform surgery to remove the necrotic bone.

A similar case was a 63-year-old male patient living in Khanh Hoa province who had Covid-19 in December 2021. By February 2022, the patient had developed headaches and swollen eyes.

When the patient was transferred to Cho Ray Hospital, he had necrosis in the frontal skull, nasal cavity, and palatine bone. The doctors removed the entire necrotic bone and the abscess and treated him with antibiotics and antifungal drugs.

Dr Tran Anh Bich, deputy head of the Faculty of Otolaryngology, Cho Ray Hospital, said that in the past two months, the unit had recorded 11 other cases, including necrosis of the skull and maxillofacial bone, as well as inflammation and abnormal sinuses.

The patients were admitted to the hospital with headaches, nasal congestion, and swelling of the face and eyes; all had a history of Covid-19 (Delta strain).

Approximately 50 per cent of these patients had diabetes. Two of the 11 patients died.

"The patients previously had surgery, their health was stable, and they asked to be discharged, but then their condition deteriorated quickly, and we couldn't handle it in time," Bich said.

Tran Minh Truong, former deputy director of Cho Ray Hospital, said the cases were very strange, adding that necrosis of the skull and jaw bones, and severe sinuses, were serious and spread fast.

Although it is impossible to conclude that Covid-19 causes the inflammation of the jaw, skull, and face, doctors have found a relationship between the disease and the Delta variant.

"We think a lot about the possibility of embolism for patients with Covid-19, in which the Delta variant can cause hypercoagulability and embolism," Truong said.

He noted that from May 2021 to May 2022, there were 80 reports in India, China, the US and some other Asian countries of pneumonia cases, bone marrow and skull necrosis, and sinusitis related to Covid-19, similar to the cases at Cho Ray.

Doctors recommend that patients, after being infected with Covid-19, who have symptoms within six to eight months of prolonged headache, sinusitis, swelling of the face, skull and jaw, consider a CT scan to find the cause.

Viet Nam News

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