COVID-19 Associated Mucormycosis: Scoping Review Protocol

Hussain, S.; Baxi, H.; Riad, A.; Kulgarova, J.; Licenik, R.; Klugar, M.

Background and Objective: Mucormycosis, a serious and rare fungal infection, has occurred concurrently in COVID-19 patients globally. Mucormycosis is associated with a high risk of all-cause mortality, with mortality depending on body site infected, fungus type, and the patients overall condition. This deadly fungal infection is quite difficult and expensive to treat. Therefore, this scoping review aims to map all the empirical evidence on the association of COVID-19 with mucormycosis with a special focus on clinical presentation, treatment, and patient outcomes. Inclusion criteria: We will include all those studies which are presenting mucormycosis cases in COVID-19 positive patients. Methods: The proposed scoping review will be developed by adhering to the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and will be reported as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A detailed search strategy has already been utilized to locate both published and unpublished studies. Literature search was carried out in three phases. PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Google scholar was searched. Data will be extracted in a pre-designed data extraction sheet and risk of bias will be assessed using JBI critical appraisal tool. Data will be presented in tabular form. OSF registration number: osf.io/438sm