Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 6, 2022; 10(28): 10358-10365
Published online Oct 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i28.10358
COVID-19-associated disseminated mucormycosis: An autopsy case report
Daisuke Kyuno, Terufumi Kubo, Mitsuhiro Tsujiwaki, Shintaro Sugita, Michiko Hosaka, Hazuki Ito, Keisuke Harada, Akira Takasawa, Yusaku Kubota, Kumi Takasawa, Yusuke Ono, Kazufumi Magara, Eichi Narimatsu, Tadashi Hasegawa, Makoto Osanai
Daisuke Kyuno, Terufumi Kubo, Akira Takasawa, Yusaku Kubota, Kumi Takasawa, Yusuke Ono, Kazufumi Magara, Makoto Osanai, Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo 0608556, Hokkaido, Japan
Mitsuhiro Tsujiwaki, Shintaro Sugita, Michiko Hosaka, Tadashi Hasegawa, Department of Surgical Pathology, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo 0608556, Japan
Hazuki Ito, Keisuke Harada, Eichi Narimatsu, Department of Emergency Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo 0608556, Japan
Author contributions: Kyuno D, Kubo T, and Hosaka M performed the autopsy; Kyuno D, Kubo T, Tsujiwaki M, Sugita S, Ono Y, and Magara K performed the histopathological examination; Takasawa A, Kubota Y, and Takasawa K performed the DNA analysis; Ito H, Harada K, and Narimatsu E provided treatment for this case and performed visualization of the work; Hasegawa T and Osanai M supervised this project and helped with writing the manuscript; Kyuno D drafted the manuscript; all authors reviewed and revised the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Appropriate written informed consent was obtained from the patient’s family to publish this case report and the project.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflict of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Daisuke Kyuno, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Doctor, Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University, South-1, West-17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 0608556, Hokkaido, Japan. kyuno@sapmed.ac.jp
Received: June 20, 2022
Peer-review started: June 20, 2022
First decision: August 4, 2022
Revised: August 12, 2022
Accepted: August 21, 2022
Article in press: August 21, 2022
Published online: October 6, 2022
Processing time: 98 Days and 23.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We document a case of disseminated mucormycosis post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. A 58-year-old man underwent a right hemicolectomy during COVID-19 pneumonia. The surgical wound developed necrosis, which was followed by multi-organ failure, leading to death. An autopsy revealed multiple thrombi with Rhizopus oryzae infection, which led to the necrosis of multiple infected organs. Our paper is a rare pathological autopsy report on COVID-19-associated mucormycosis. It is important that treating physicians be aware of the increased risk of mucormycosis in patients with severe COVID-19. Early suspicion and diagnosis followed by treatment are keys to better outcomes.