Neurological involvement in CoViD-19 infection, data from a small community Hospital

ABSTRACT

Background: A comprehensive review of the neurological disorders reported during the current CoViD-19 pandemic demonstrates that infection affects the central nervous system, the peripheral nervous system and the muscle. Methods: In this retrospective, observational study, we enrolled 748 patients, with laboratory confirmed diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome from coronavirus infection. Data were collected from March to May 2020 and from October to April 2021and were extracted from electronic medical records. Neurological symptoms included central nervous system headache, dizziness, impaired consciousness, acute cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, peripheral nervous system symptoms, hypogeusia, hyposmia, hypopsia and neuralgia, and skeletal muscle injury. Data of all neurological symptoms were checked by a multidisciplinary team. Results: Of 814 patients admitted to the Urgency Medicine ward, 284 were severe and 530 were non-severe patients. Severe patients were older, and showed less typical symptoms. 633patients had neurologic manifestations hypoageusia, hyposmia, neuralgia, headache, 29 patients had stroke, 2 myastenic syndrome, 2 Guillaine Barre, 1 encephalitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has implications for all areas of medicine. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with an increased incidence of neurological manifestations. Involvement of the nervous system carries a poor prognosis. The pathobiology of these neuroinvasive viruses is still incompletely known, and it is therefore important to explore the impact of CoV infections on the nervous system.