Acute and long-term neurological disorders in patients with coronavirus infection

Abstract

Currently, patients who attribute their complaints and disorders to the past COVID-19 are turning to a neurologist for a consultation. One should consider dangerous complications of COVID-19 such as stroke, including cerebral venous thrombosis, autoimmune encephalitis and myelitis, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, Guillain–Barre’ syndrome. Disorders of consciousness, disorders of smell and taste, headache and dizziness are significantly more often present in the acute period of COVID-19. Long-term persistence of complaints and disorders after COVID-19 is regarded as post-COVID syndrome (PCS). Neurological complaints and disorders in a patient who has had COVID-19 are often caused by the development or exacerbation of a comorbid disease, including primary headache, musculoskeletal pain in the neck and back, various vestibular disorders, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety and depressive disorders. Unfortunately, in real clinical practice, these diseases are often not diagnosed, patients are observed with a diagnosis of PCS, and it is not taken into account that the basis for diagnosing PCS is the exclusion of other diseases that can explain complaints and disorders in a patient who has suffered from COVID-19.