Epilepsy as a Presenting Symptom of Covid-19 in a Tertiary Private Hospital in Northern Mexico

ABSTRACT

Background. Various manifestations of COVID-19 have been described in patients, including neurological. Few studies describe seizures as a presenting symptom. This study was aimed to identify clinical characteristics, type of epilepsy and electroencephalographic findings in patients with epilepsy as a presenting symptom of COVID-19 in a tertiary private hospital. Methods. Descriptive, retrospective, observational and cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria were patients with epilepsy as a presenting symptom of COVID-19 confirmed with Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for SARS-CoV2 by nasopharyngeal swab from March 2020-July 2021 in a tertiary private hospital. Study variables were age, gender, type of epilepsy, comorbidities and electroencephalographic findings. It was classified into three groups acute symptomatic seizures, onset of epilepsy, and uncontrolled epilepsy. Information was captured in Excel and analyzed in SPSS. Results. Of 203,987 patientes with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 in Nuevo Le..n until July 2021, 10 patients (0.004%) were included with seizures. Two patients had acute symptomatic seizures (20%), four patients had onset seizures (40%) and four patients (40%) had uncontrolled epilepsy with an average epilepsy evolution time of 15.75 years. Focal seizures were predominant in 63%. Electroencephalogram was abnormal in 90% (50% focal frontotemporal sharp waves, 20% encephalopathic, 20% generalized spike wave). Two patients (20%) had status epilepticus. Conclusion. This study is important in order to carry out early detection in suspects or with a previous neurological history and to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.