New Horrific Post-COVID Condition: Multiple Gallbladder Gangrene Cases Reported In Indian Hospital

A new horrific post-COVID condition has been reported from the Indian capital Delhi, with at least five people who have recovered from the deadly virus contracting gallbladder gangrene. The condition has a high morbidity rate and the patients required emergency surgery, doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram hospital said.

The hospital said five recovered Covid patients — four men and a woman, ages between 37 and 75 — returned in the past two months, and four of them had holes in their gall bladder, reported the Hindustan Times.

India is among the countries ravaged by the coronavirus, with the second highest number of infections in the world —more than 33 million to date — and nearly 445,000 deaths, Johns Hopkins data showed. The U.S. leads the list with more than 42 million cases and nearly 674,000 deaths.

Earlier this year deadly black fungus infections were reported in India among Covid patients, and the report of the new post-Covid condition has struck fear as India is still battling a wave of infections ffueled by the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

"Gall bladder inflammation without stone is usually seen in patients with HIV, those who have received nutrition through IV, prolonged fasting, those who have been in the intensive care unit for long, and those who have had an accident or burns," Dr. Anil Arora of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital told the Hindustan Times. "(These) patients did not have these factors; they developed the acute inflammation nearly two months after recovering from COVID-19 and not during their hospital stay."

The doctor added that the patients had severe gallbladder inflammation without gallstones, which resulted in gangrene of the organ.

Pathologists in the hospital found the patients had severe inflammation and injury due to lack of blood supply along with damage to the vessels. This prompted doctors to believe that the Sars-CoV-2 virus might be causing the condition.

“The Sars-CoV-2 virus enters through the respiratory system and affects the lungs the most as it has a high number of ACE-2 receptors that the virus uses to bind to human cells. After lungs, the gastrointestinal tract and the biliary system (bile duct, gall bladder and associated structures) have the highest ACE-2 receptors. We think the virus might be attaching to the gall bladder lining and dysregulating the immune system, causing injury to the gall bladder,” said Dr. Arora.

The condition called "acalculous cholecystitis" was confirmed through ultrasound and CT scan, and has a high morbidity rate of up to 30-60%. The symptoms included fever, pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen and vomiting. All of patients required emergency surgery.

Among the five, two had diabetes and one suffered from heart disease. Three had taken steroids to fight COVID-19, reported Mint.

Dr. Arora added that the virus might also be causing tiny clots that are not detected due to damage to the blood vessels. "This is a known mechanism of Sars-CoV-2, which is why we are hearing of cases of stroke and heart attacks after COVID-19," he added.

Thousands of cases a deadly black fungus infection, or mucormycosis, attributed to the heavy use of steroids in treating severely ill COVID-19 patients, were reported widely in India earlier this year. In many cases, doctors had to remove the eyes, nose, and jaw from patients to prevent the infection from spreading to the brain.