Musculoskeletal Corticosteroid Injection during COVID-19Pandemic in Sabah: Is It Safe

Musculoskeletal corticosteroid injection is commonly used as an adjunct to help patients in pain management. In this currentCOVID-19 pandemic, many clinicians would differ from this treatment as steroid is considered an immunosuppressive drug andcould risk the patient of developing severe adverse effects if contracting COVID-19. +is is a retrospective study based in Sabah,Malaysia, examining the prevalence of COVID-19 infection following musculoskeletal corticosteroid injection from 1 December2019 until 30 June 2020 in the sports medicine clinic and the orthopedic clinic. Patients who received musculoskeletal corti-costeroid injection were called by telephone and asked about visits to the emergency department or government health clinic forinfluenza-like illness symptoms or severe acute respiratory infection that would require screening of COVID-19. +irty-fivepatients who responded to the call were included, with mean ages of 47.9 years±15.1. 52% were male respondents, while 48% werefemale. 25% of them were diabetics, and 2.9% of them had a history of lymphoproliferative disorders. +e mean pain score beforeinjection was 6.74±1.03 and after injection pain was 2.27±1.63. In this study, there were 11.4% (n�4) with minor complicationsof steroid injection, that is, skin discoloration. Nonetheless, there were no severe complications due to corticosteroids reported.+ere were no reported cases of COVID-19 among the respondents following corticosteroid injection. Musculoskeletal painwould affect a person’s well-being and activities; thus, its management requires that careful consideration with risk-benefitanalysis be made before administering musculoskeletal corticosteroid injection during COVID-19 pandemic.