Neurological Manifestation of COVID-19: An Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Covid-19 associated neurological syndromes has been recognized as an important part of the clinical spectrum of illness with a significant impact on mortality and morbidity. The common neurological manifestations are headache, dizziness, smell and taste disorders, encephalopathy, meningoencephalitis, acute cardiovascular syndromes, seizures, and peripheral nervous system disorders.Methodology: A single center retrospective study was undertaken to identify the presence/absence of neurological symptoms and signs in a sample of 1700 consecutive patients admitted with covid-19. A detailed questionnaire addressing comorbidities, admission details and clinical features was employed to collect data from the hospital records of patients with neurological signs and symptoms. The data was analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics version 22 software for relative frequency of various neurological syndromes and related variable.Results: 1700 COVID-19 patient records were analyzed of whom 230 of them showing one or more neurological manifestations. Among the COVID-19 patients with neurological manifestations, mean (standard deviation) age was 43 (19.8) years and half of them were (49.6%) male. Most common neurological symptom was headache reported by 80.9% of patients followed by smell and taste disorders (STD) (26.5%), dizziness (23.5%), myalgia (19.1%), altered sensorium (15 %), strokes (13.04%) and seizures (12.6%). 10% of patients succumbed to the illness of whom 52.2% had suffered a stroke.Conclusion: Neurological manifestations of covid-19 are manifold but well defined and replicated consistently by previous studies and ours. Increasing awareness of this important facet will ensure better identification and effective treatment of these conditions.Funding Statement: None to declare.Declaration of Interests: None to declare.Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by Institutional Ethics Committee of Malabar Institute Of Medical Sciences Ltd. (MIMS).