Lemierre's Syndrome in the External Jugular Vein Precipitated by COVID-19 Infection

Raghavendra R Sanivarapu; Ramya Sruthi Rajamreddy; Swetha Nalla; Shameera Shaik Masthan; Goutami Mangu

doi:10.7759/cureus.34512

Lemierre's Syndrome in the External Jugular Vein Precipitated by COVID-19 Infection

Cureus. 2023 Feb 1;15(2):e34512. doi: 10.7759/cureus.34512. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Raghavendra R Sanivarapu^{1

2}, Ramya Sruthi Rajamreddy³, Swetha Nalla⁴, Shameera Shaik Masthan⁵, Goutami Mangu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Odessa, USA.
² Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow, USA.
³ Internal Medicine, People's Education Society Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (PESIMSR), Kuppam, IND.
⁴ Internal Medicine, Mamata Medical College, Khammam, IND.
⁵ Medicine, University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
⁶ Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Odessa, USA.

Abstract

Lemierre's syndrome is a condition when an oropharyngeal infection, typically from Fusobacterium necrophorum, causes thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein. There have been few case reports of Lemierre's syndrome affecting the external jugular vein, but to our knowledge, this is the first case report where COVID-19 infection is the prime suspect for causing this syndrome. SARS-CoV-2 infection, known to cause hypercoagulability and immunosuppression, increases the risk of deep venous thrombosis and secondary infections. We report a case of a young male with no known risk factors who developed Lemierre's syndrome as a complication of COVID infection.

Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19); external jugular vein thrombosis; jugular vein thrombophlebitis; lemierre’s syndrome; sars-cov-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2).

Publication types

Case Reports