New Delhi: Fourteen Post-Covid patients, eight of them have received steroids during treatment, diagnosed with “extraordinarily large” and many liver abscesses, and one of them died of massive bleeding in the stomach, authorities at the hospital The leading private is here on Thursday.
Liver abscess (the formation of pus in the heart) is generally caused by parasites known as Entamoeba Histolytica which is transmitted through contaminated food and water, the doctor said.
These patients, ten men and four women in the age group 28-74, were taken to the hospital Sir Ganga Ram in the past two months with “unusual manifestations”, the doctor said.
“We saw for the first time in the past two months extraordinary liver abscess and a lot in fourteen patients after recovery from Covid-19 infection,” said a spokesman for the facility.
Doctors suspect that poor nutrition and the use of steroids can cause formation of nannah and compromise their hearts.
“What we found unusual was after recovery from Covid, a patient who immunacompeted, within 22 days had a large area of the two lobes of the liver filled with pus in various locations, requiring drainage and hospitalization,” Chairman, Institute of Liver Gastroenterology and pancreaticobiliary sciences, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
While life if these 13 patients can be saved, one patient with large abscesses died due to massive bleeding in the stomach after the outbreak of abscess in the abdominal cavity, he said, adding the rest stable and sent home.
The doctor said all patients had “fever and abdominal pain and three of them were also related to lower GI (gastrointestinal) bleeding with a black bench”.
Eight of these patients have received steroids for the management of Covid-19 symptoms, Arora said.
Six patients had several large abscesses in both liver lobes which five patients had extraordinary large abscess (more than 8 cm), the biggest size of 19 cm, the doctor said.
“Three patients who had blood during the release of feces, showed ulcers in the large intestine, which was detected by the colonoscopy.
The average duration between the symptoms of Covid-19 and the diagnosis of liver abscess was 22 days.
Thirteen of the fourteen patients were successfully treated with antibiotics, metronidazole .
Medicine and drainage from the heart, “Arora added.
In the time of this pandemic, the high index of suspicion of such infections in the form of fever and pain in the right abdomen refers to timely intervention in the form of early diagnosis and effective medical therapy can effectively save inappropriate misery and hospitalization in this patient, said Dr.
Preveen Sharma, senior consultant, gastroenterology, at the hospital.
“We believe that the suppression of immunity by Covid-19 infection along with the use of steroids to treat covid infections per se, low suspicion index for liver abscess and delay in treatment in patients who restore Coronavirus infection may cause many development and large abscesses in the heart,” said Arora.
Entamoeba Histolytica is a general parasite in countries with poor sanitation services.
This parasite causes amubiasis, intestinal infections which are also called Amoebic dysentery, the doctor said.
After the infection has occurred, the parasite can be carried by the bloodstream from the intestine to the liver and causes liver abscess.
Usually these abscesses are single and not too large and picked up since the beginning of abdominal ultrasonography as part of the work of fever and related symptoms in immunocompetent patients, they said.
Bad nutrition, immunocompromised status (as in HIV patients and cancer) and the use of steroids predicted patients with this infection by AmoBa which caused liver abscess, the doctor said.
Covid: 14 suffers from big abscess in the heart, 1 dead
