The second wave of Covid-19 in India saw more and more cases of complications in recovered coronavirus patients, such as mucormycosis, bloo...
The second wave of Covid-19 in India saw more and more cases of complications in recovered coronavirus patients, such as mucormycosis, blood clots, new onset diabetes, chronic fatigue among others. The latest is avascular necrosis or osteonecrosis. Doctors in Mumbai’s PD Hinduja Hospital recently reported at least three cases of AVN and a day later, Delhi’s BLK Super Speciality Hospital reported three more.
In common parlance, it is the “death of bone tissue due to lack of blood supply”. In detail, AVN is a degenerative bone condition that existed way before Covid-19. But doctors think this could be the next worrying trend in post-Covid complications.
To know more, FactChecker spoke to two specialists: Dr Sanjay Agarwala, head of orthopaedics at PD Hinduja Hospital and the doctor treating the three Mumbai patients and Dr Gauresh Palekar, an orthopaedic surgeon at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai.
What’s avascular necrosis
Avascular Necrosis is a disease that occurs when the blood supply to the bone is temporarily or permanently cut off, according to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. This most commonly affects the ends of a long bone leading to small breaks in the bone and causes the bone’s eventual collapse. It may affect one bone, several bones at one time, or different bones...
