Abstract
COVID-19 is a novel virus which causes a variety of clinical manifestations in the body some of which are still yet to be discovered. The main aim of our study is to highlight the neurological manifestations of COVID-19 as it is still new to the medical world and to emphasize the fact that the physicians have to be vary of the possibility that patients affected with COVID-19 can present with encephalitis during this modern world pandemic. Only a few case reports have been reported so far regarding the neurological manifestations of this novel virus which highlights the need of this study. We present a case series of 5 patients who were found to have COVID-19 encephalitis. There is still no disease defining test for diagnosis so the mainstay of diagnosis is exclusion of the all common causes of encephalitis. Brain MRI and CSF analysis performs an ancillary in the diagnostic tools. Our study also supports the use of IV Tocilizumab (4-8 mg/kg) and IV methylprednisolone (0.5-2 mg/kg) as treatment options having good results as the patients described in our case series responded well to this therapeutic combination. Our study also highlights the fact that the disease can have a good outcome with no long term neurological complications.
Keywords: COVID-19, Encephalitis, Neurological manifestation, Tocilizimab, Methylprednisolone, Polymerase Chain Reaction
Key Clinical Message: Brain MRI and CSF analysis perform an ancillary in the diagnostic tools. Our study also supports the use of IV Tocilizumab (4-8 mg/kg) and IV methylprednisolone (0.5-2 mg/kg) as treatment options having good results with favorable outcomes.