Nagpur: Doctors detect mucormycosis in man’s intestine – ET HealthWorld

NAGPUR: Mucormycosis is commonly known to affect the eyeballs, dental and nasal systems or the brain. But now, it has been found to have infested the large intestine of a 70-year-old patient from the city.
Already having lost his left eye a month ago, the man was admitted to Seven Star Hospital on July 19 after the flesh-eating fungus relapsed in his skull base portion, threatening the right eye too.

A month ago, the Covid-recovered man was admitted to another private hospital following the first attack of black fungus. The septuagenarian had been complaining of abdominal pain while under treatment for mucormycosis relapse.

Doctors decided to address both the skull bone and abdomen pain in single anaesthesia. However, in laparoscopy, they couldn’t find anything unusual to correlate with the abdominal pain.

Dr Prashant Rahate, endoscopist and laparoscopic surgeon, said that colonoscopy done a couple of times at the previous private hospital had found nothing. “When the patient was shifted to our hospital, we performed laparoscopy. As his blood pressure was low, we placed a tube and removed pus before closing the abdomen,” said Dr Rahate, who is also a director of the hospital.

Post-surgery, the patient kept complaining of pain in abdomen and it began to swell. “After two days, we again performed laparotomy. The black fungus was found on a 6-inch portion of the sigmoid colon. Medical literature has recorded such incidence of mucormycosis,” he said, adding that such cases are rare.

Dr Rahate agreed that it was probably the first such case among post-Covid patients in the district.