Transverse myelitis in COVID-19 patients: Report of two cases

Abstract

Abstract Background: COVID-19 has been associated with several neurological complications. One of these complications is transverse myelitis. Several cases of acute transverse myelitis are reported in association with this disease among the world. As there is lack of knowledge about the association of COVID-19 and myelitis and the clinical features of this complication are still ambiguous, we report two patients with transverse myelitis following COVID-19 infection. Patients: This study was performed in a referral center of COVID-19 in Iran(Shohada Tajrish hospital) and two patients with paraparesis and diagnosis of transverse myelitis were enrolled. Both patients had longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis that resulted in paraparesis. One of the patients had favorable outcome after treatment with plasma exchange but the other had no improvement following treatment.Conclusion: Transverse myelitis could be a complication of COVID-19 and infarction and inflammation could be suggested as probable mechanisms for this condition.