Phototherapies for COVID-19-associated opportunistic oral infections

Abstract

Opportunistic infections are widely described in patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, very few studies have addressed those affecting the oral cavity. Given the lack of information on the clinical presentations and the available treatment options, the present study aimed to show a case in which a combination of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) and photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) was used for the management of two concomitant COVID-19-associated opportunistic oral infections (oral pseudomembranous candidiasis and recurrent herpes labialis). Within 7 days and without any systemic drug administration, all the lesions resolved completely, and the patient no longer reported oral pain or discomfort. According to the current case report and taking into consideration the significant gaps in the knowledge and understanding of COVID-19, this combination of phototherapy modalities seems to be a promising tool for managing viral and fungal opportunistic oral infections.

Photodynamic therapy and Photobiomodulation as adjuvant treatment of oral and facial manifestations in patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the intensive care unit: a case series

“…Orofacial manifestations associated with COVID-19 have been described in the literature (Amorim dos Santos et al, 2020;Berlingieri et al, 2022;Bhujel et al, 2020;Brandão et al, 2021;El Kady et al, 2021;Perrillat et al, 2020). The exacerbation of these lesions is probably related to time and non-movement during the prone position because it is important to increase respiratory volume and, consequently, to improve the condition of patients with SARS undergoing OTI (Moore et al, 2020;Perrillat et al, 2020).…”

“…All patients treated in this article were under corticosteroids treatment for a considerable time and developed lesions clinically compatible with viral infections that may be intensified with the presence of COVID-19. Despite the ulcerated lesions have not been tested for the presence of virus, aPDT is known to be an important adjunct therapy against virus, bacteria, and fungus infections (Berlingieri et al, 2022).…”

Conservative treatment with mouthwashes followed by tongue photo biomodulation therapy in Covid-19: a case report

“…Teixeira et al further described a series of cases where PBMT led to relief of pain and orofacial symptoms of COVID-19 [ 27 ]. There was another reported case of the opportunistic infections candidiasis and herpes labialis present in a patient with COVID-19 [ 28 ]. The patient was treated with PBMT with resolution of the symptoms and without the need for systemic treatment for the opportunistic infections [ 28 ].…”

“…There was another reported case of the opportunistic infections candidiasis and herpes labialis present in a patient with COVID-19 [ 28 ]. The patient was treated with PBMT with resolution of the symptoms and without the need for systemic treatment for the opportunistic infections [ 28 ]. There is growing evidence of cases in which PBMT has helped in the resolution of COVID-19-related oral symptoms [ 29 ].…”

Phototherapies for the management of a large painful facial cutaneous lesion from human monkeypox infection

“…The rationale for that was based on a manuscript previously published in this journal in which a computational strategy was carried out to investigate the potential of aPDT using propolis-benzofuran A against the MPX virus and promising results were achieved [9] . Moreover, we also hypothesized that concurrent PBMT would be advantageous for pain relief and faster and better tissue repair, as similar papers of our group presented substantial benefits from these phototherapies for the management of mucosal and/or skin lesions related to infections of different natures [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] . Likewise, a very recent systematic review highlighted the important role of combining aPDT and PBMT for herpes labialis [17] .…”