Post-COVID-19 Syndrome in Neurology Patients: A Single Center Experience

Abstract

Our aim was to determine the frequency and characteristics of neurological post-COVID-19 syndrome and the diagnostic and therapeutic measures that were used for the treatment of these patients. Data were collected for 243 patients examined during the period of 11 May 2021 to 22 June 2022. The inclusion criteria were COVID-19 illness and neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19. The exclusion criteria were non-neurological symptoms, patients who did not suffer from COVID-19, and symptoms that occurred after vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Data for 227 patients with neurological post-COVID-19 symptoms were analyzed. Most patients presented with multiple symptoms, most often headache, cognitive impairment, loss of smell, paresthesia, fatigue, dizziness, and insomnia. Patients were most often referred for consultative examinations, neuroradiological imaging, and EEG. The therapy was mostly symptomatic. Most patients had no change in their symptoms on follow-up visits (53.21%), while positive outcome was found in 44.95% of patients. This study found that neurological post-COVID-19 syndrome appears to be more common in women, and generally, the most common symptoms are headache and cognitive impairment. The gender distribution of symptoms was clearly visible and should be further investigated. There is a need for longitudinal follow-up studies to better understand the disease dynamic.

Keywords: COVID-19; cognitive dysfunction; headache; post-COVID-19 syndrome.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the study indicating included and excluded patients.

Figure 2

Outcomes of the follow-up examinations. Most of the patients came to follow-up visits, and the symptoms persisted in more than a half of those (n = 58, 53%). Overall, looking at most follow-up visits, there was a persistence of post-COVID-19 symptomatology in more than a half, even though the overall number of patients is low in two to four follow-up examinations in our study.