Open AccessMajor Spinal Surgery Between Two Documented COVID-19 Infections in an Elderly Female: A Case Report
Author(s) -
Bishruti Sharma,
Nabin Paudyal,
B. Rajbhandari,
Amit Pradhanang,
Nikita Dwa,
Ajay Pradhan,
Mohan Raj Sharma
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of nepal medical association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.176
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1815-672X
pISSN - 0028-2715
DOI - 10.31729/jnma.6507
Subject(s) - medicine , surgery , complication , spinal surgery , covid-19 , spinal injury , spinal fracture , infectious disease (medical specialty) , spinal cord , disease , spinal cord injury , psychiatry
Documented re-infection of COVID-19 is uncommon and doing a major spinal surgery in an elderly patient right after the recovery from the first event is itself a major undertaking. Re-infection after successful surgery points to the possibility of COVID-19 infection being a post-surgical complication. Here, we report a case of a 72-years-old elderly female who had presented to us with features of COVID-19 infection confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay and unstable spinal fracture who underwent a pedicle screw fixation for the fracture of the third and fourth thoracic vertebrae after two consecutive negative serology assays. A month after discharge from the hospital, she presented with severe symptoms of COVID-19 again confirmed by two consecutive polymerase chain reaction assays. She was managed conservatively and was discharged without significant respiratory and neurological complications. We described this case in detail in addition to reviewing the pertinent literature.