Lacrimal Sac Rhinosporidiosis: Clinical Profile and Gram Stain as a Method of Preoperative Diagnosis.

PURPOSE: To describe the clinical profile of lacrimal sac rhinosporidiosis and to introduce a method for preoperative microbial identification of rhinosporidiosis using Gram stain. METHODS: This is a prospective study, carried out from January 2016 to January 2022. This series included 18 patients with clinical suspicion of lacrimal sac rhinosporidiosis. All patients underwent a comprehensive eye check-up. Mucopurulent discharge collected by a sterile swab after applying pressure over the sac area and Gram staining was done. All patients underwent dacryocystectomy. The sac contents were sent for histopathology, and rhinosporidiosis was confirmed. RESULTS: A total of 18 patients over a period of 6 years with suspicion of lacrimal sac rhinosporidiosis were included. There were 11 (61.1%) male patients. Ten patients (55.5 %) had a history of either regular or occasional bathing in stagnant water. Nontender doughy swelling over the lacrimal sac region was the most common presentation. Gram staining of the mucopurulent discharge revealed thick-walled sporangia with endospores suggestive of rhinosporidiosis in all these cases. All patients underwent dacryocystectomy. Hematoxylin and eosin sections confirmed the diagnosis. Two patients had recurrence within 6 months after surgery. CONCLUSION: Regurgitation of pus mixed with whitish granular particles or blood is highly suspicious of rhinosporidiosis. In clinically suspected cases, microbial diagnosis using Gram stain is an economical, office procedure, which helps the surgeon to plan for the surgery and for better counseling.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward mucormycosis among patients presenting to six tertiary eye care hospitals in South India - A multicentric online questionnaire-based survey.

Purpose: To study the awareness on mucormycosis among outpatients who visited six tertiary eye care hospitals at Madurai, Pondicherry, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Chennai, and Tirupati. Methods: This was a telephone-based survey conducted using questionnaires consisting of 38 questions in five sections from July 5 to 25, 2021. Patients visiting the eye hospitals for an examination were contacted over their phones and responses were directly entered onto the Google forms platform. Results: A total of 4573 participants were included in the study. Among all participants, a cumulative 83% of participants had some knowledge of mucormycosis. More than 80% of them reported that their prime source of information was through mass communication like television or radio. Around 34.8% of the respondents were aware that it can occur after treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, only half of them (54.3%) knew that systemic steroids were the main risk factor. The knowledge scores were higher for participants who were diabetics (n = 1235) or had been affected by COVID-19 earlier (n = 456) or whose friends had mucormycosis earlier (n = 312). Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) scores of nonprofessional health-care workers (n = 103) were much better compared to patients. Conclusion: Such KAP studies give us an idea of the impact of the measures taken for educating the public. In this study, a cumulative 83% of participants had some knowledge of mucormycosis and 86% knew that this was an emergency. More than 50% of the participants were not aware that diabetes is a risk factor for mucormycosis.