COVID-19 frequently causes neurological injuries

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/nlh-cfc101220.php

News Release 13-Oct-2020
NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine

Without directly invading the brain or nerves, the virus responsible for COVID-19 causes potentially damaging neurological injuries in about one in seven infected, a new study shows. These injuries range from temporary confusion due to low body-oxygen levels, to stroke and seizures in the most serious cases, say the study authors.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study showed no cases of brain or nerve inflammation (meningitis or encephalitis), indicating no immediate invasion of these organs by the pandemic virus, SARS-CoV-2.

While this should reassure patients, the neurological complications of COVID-19 should be taken seriously because they dramatically raise a patient's risk of dying while still in hospital (by 38 percent), researchers say. Such adverse effects also raise a coronavirus patient's likelihood (by 28 percent) of needing long-term or rehabilitation therapy immediately after their stay in hospital.

"The results of our study showed no signs that the coronavirus directly attacks the nervous system," says study lead investigator Jennifer Frontera, MD. "The neurological complications seen in COVID-19 are predominately the secondary effects of being severely ill and suffering from low oxygen levels in the body for prolonged periods of time," says Frontera, a professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone Health.

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