A 77-year-old man from Japan was diagnosed with “restless anal syndrome” a few weeks after he recovered from COVID-19, according to a medical report submitted to BMC Infectious Diseases.
The unnamed male was initially admitted to Tokyo Medical University Hospital after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis – after 21 days of treatment he was able to breath normally again, a team of Japanese researchers led by Dr Itaru Nakamura revealed.
However, the man suffered from anxiety and insomnia after his lungs had recovered... another “urgent” issue affecting his anus then emerged.
According to the report, the unfortunate condition left the Japanese man with “restless, deep anal discomfort” 10 cm from his “perennial region” between his genitals and anus.
The patient started experiencing an urge to move, with the condition improving when he exercised but worsening when he tried to rest. The situation was especially severe in the evening and no amount of defecating apparently helped ease his suffering.
Doctors ran a series of tests including a colonoscopy but found nothing abnormal.
They reached the conclusion that the condition could only have been caused by COVID, making it the first ever documented “restless anal syndrome” diagnosis to be linked to the coronavirus.
The syndrome is described as a variant of “restless legs syndrome” (RLS) – a more common neurological disorder that was actually observed among COVID-19 patients in the past. However, such anal discomfort in the aftermath of coronavirus infection has not been recorded by medical experts before.
The report concludes that the patient was eventually prescribed an anti-anxiety clonazepam drug to alleviate his discomfort. The man continues to improve ten months into treatment but it’s not clear if his symptoms will return when he stops using meds.