While the symptoms associated with COVID-19 are mainly breathing difficulties, fever and cough, during the pandemic and the observation of its complications, in the more severe forms of the disease, other problems, in particular Cerebral have been documented, including confusion, inflammation of the brain, spinal cord and other types of nervous diseases or even stroke. Studies have accumulated to document an increasing number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients with different degrees of brain and neurological impairment. Patients who will need to be monitored over time, as some of them may develop cognitive decline. A classification “ Neurocovid Has even been documented in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, which today provides valuable benchmarks for clinicians.
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Rare but numerous brain complications, given the extent of the pandemic
Here, the British team sift through the results of the latest COVID-19 studies around the world that have reported neurological complications. This review thus concerns studies conducted in China, Italy and the United States, and on nearly 1,000 patients suffering from a cerebral, medullary and nervous disease associated with COVID-19. Lead author Dr. Suzannah Lant recalls that “although these complications are relatively rare, the large number of COVID-19 cases worldwide means that the total number of patients with neurological problems could be quite large”.
Encephalitis, characterized by inflammation and swelling of the brain, is one of the most common complications related to COVID-19. However, this is only a complication, among the very wide range of neurological manifestations identified in the 901 patients in the analysis:
- encephalopathy has been reported in 93 patients in total
- Guillain-Barré syndrome in 19 patients;
- SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in the CSF of some patients;
- l’anosmie and ageusia are noted as common complications that can arise in the absence of other clinical features;
- Acute cerebrovascular disease also appears to be an important complication, with cohort studies reporting a stroke in 2 to 6% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
The proportion of infections leading to neurological disease will likely remain weak. However, these patients could end up with severe neurological sequelae. Given the number of people infected, the total number of neurological patients and the health burden and associated social and economic costs could be high, stress the researchers, who invite decision makers to prepare for this eventuality.
“It is essential that doctors around the world recognize that COVID-19 can cause encephalitis and other brain problems, with devastating effects on the lives of patients.” We are working on a more complete picture of these neurological complications and their consequences. Doctors wishing to provide data to our analysis can contact us via the Global COVID-Neuro Network website ».
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