Post-Covid-19 complications cause skull necrosis, leading to death

Recently, many patients have suffered from post-Covid-19 complications, causing necrosis of the skull and jawbone, leading to death. This causes a lot of confusion.

On July 11, Cho Ray Hospital (the largest general hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) said that in the last 2 months, the hospital has received 11 patients with severe skull necrosis caused by Candida fungus, Aspergillus and germs.

In which, 2 cases died, 6 asked to stop treatment, 3 lucky patients were saved.

Notably, all of these cases had symptoms such as headache, nasal congestion, swelling of the face and eyes, etc., after being infected with Covid-19 before.

This could be a post-Covid-19 complication.

The first case of skull necrosis due to post-Covid-19 complications

The first case to be saved was a female patient, named A.T.L. Previously in November 2021, this patient was infected with Covid-19. In March 2022, the patient began to have symptoms of headache, nasal congestion, and facial swelling. After medical examination, patient L. was diagnosed with sinusitis and underwent surgery at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

But in May, A.T.L. suffered from re-swelling of the face and headache and was transferred to Cho Ray hospital. Here, the doctor said, the X-ray showed A.T.L. had necrosis of the maxillary sinus, bone loss, and necrosis of the temporal lobes.

Immediately, A.T.L. was surgically cleaned and treated with osteonecrosis of the jaw. Notably, when opening the skull to cut the bone, there was pus coming out from the temporal part and there was a large abscess.

The second lucky case

Another case that was fortunately saved was a female patient named P.T.H. Before that, P.T.H had a headache and swollen face. P.T.H was diagnosed with sinusitis at a hospital in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City.

At there, despite having surgery, P.T.H still had swelling in his left eye, swelling in his forehead, and still had a headache.

On the X-ray image, the doctors of Cho Ray Hospital discovered that P.T.H’s sinuses were necrotic, with damage to the palatine bone and the frontal region.

Even during the surgery, the doctors discovered that the skull and frontal bones were necrotic, with a lot of pus attached to the bones and meninges.

According to Vietnamese doctors, these cases are quite rare. However, the patient will be very dangerous if not detected early, misdiagnosed and not treated in time.

Is the real cause of post-Covid-19 complications?

All patients had headache, facial pain, toothache, and palate after being infected with Covid-19. Symptoms persist for a long time.

These are signs of sinusitis, so it is easy to misdiagnose. Most of the patients had underlying medical conditions and were taking corticosteroids.

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Minh Truong, former Deputy Director of Cho Ray Hospital shared: “We cannot confirm that 100% of patients with skull and craniofacial necrosis are due to post-Covid-19 complications. However, from May 2021 to now, the world has had 80 reports on similar issues, showing a connection between Covid-19 and osteomyelitis”.

Currently, there is no standard protocol to treat the disease from the Ministry of Health of Vietnam, so doctors recommend that, when encountering the above situation, patients should go to large and reputable hospitals for examination.

Absolutely patients are not allowed to take medicine by themselves or visit an inexperienced clinic because it will be very easy to be misdiagnosed, causing many unfortunate consequences.