Annals of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (ISSN 2835-7132) | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Clinical Image | Open Access
Kazuaki Imai*
Mirai Clinic, Japan
*Correspondence to: Kazuaki Imai
Fulltext PDFA 50-year-old woman was being treated for posterior rhinorrhea and throat discomfort. In progress, she was infected with COVID-19, and began to feel marked fatigue and concentration disability, which she had never had before. Pharyngeal endoscope before (Figure 1) and after (Figure 2) the onset of new symptoms revealed diffuse mucosal swelling, cobblestone granular change , and loss of vascular translucency, which are characteristic of epipharyngitis.
The cause of Long COVID, which presents with ME/CFS-like symptoms is unclear. Epipharyngeal Abrasive Therapy (EAT), a Japanese traditional treatment, is effective in ME/CFS cases, and its usefulness has been reported in Long COVID as well 1). EAT suppresses IL-6 mRNA expression 2), this suggests that persistent inflammation lead to IL-6 production and Long COVID. This case is valuable in that it shows gross changes in the epipharynx before and after COVID-19 infection, and it will be useful in elucidating the pathogenesis of Long COVID.
Kazuaki Imai, Kensuke Nishi.Changes in Pharyngeal Endoscopy Findings with COVID-19. Annal of Otol Head and Neck Surg. 2023;2(1):1-2.