A small number of COVID-19 patients have mystified the medical field after they reportedly developed gigantic tongues, according to KHOU 11.
The COVID-19 patients developed macroglossia, a condition that causes the tongue to enlarge and prevents patients from eating or talking, according to KHOU 11.
Houston doctors have attempted to understand the causes of this condition.
Dr. James Melville, from the UTHealth School of Dentistry, explained that patients who survived COVID-19 had inflammatory cells in their tongue tissue, which makes some people more prone to macroglossia.
“I think it has a lot to do with where the virus is attaching itself and the body’s immune response to it,” Melville told KHOU 11.
Melville, who performs surgeries to heal those affected by macroglossia, said he has heard of nine patients, each of which were intubated at the hospital, with this rare condition.
Health care workers use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine on a Covid-19 patient who is having difficulties breathing in a Covid-19 holding pod at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California on January 11, 2021. (Photo by ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images)
Two of the patients with macroglossia had also experienced strokes while the other seven patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 before they developed macroglossia. (RELATED: Possible Vaccine Side Effect Connected To The Heart Now Being Studied)
He is conducting a study to determine if there is a common link in the patients’ genes. If the doctors are able to find the commonality, they hope it will lead them to answers on how to prevent the rare condition, according to KHOU 11.