News: One in three COVID patients suffer encephalopathy, study finds

Most now know some of COVID-19’s tell-tale symptoms and previous studies have shown the preponderance of complicating conditions such as stroke and acute kidney injury. Now, a new study in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology shows that encephalopathy also affects nearly one in three COVID-19 patients, according to MedPage Today.

When taken together, these collective neurologic manifestations were present in 82.3% of COVID-19 patients at some point during their illness. Other than encephalopathy, patients suffered myalgia, headache, dysgeusia, anosmia, and dizziness.

In general, patients presenting with neurologic symptoms were younger than those without, and most had favorable outcomes at discharge, with the exception of encephalopathy.

COVID-19 patients with encephalopathy were admitted to the hospital sooner, stayed longer, tended to be older, and had increased chances of mortality and morbidity than those without, according to the study.

Because of the study’s retrospective design, the authors note that the frequency of neurologic manifestations may be underreported.

Editor’s note: To read MedPage Today’s coverage of this story, click here. To read about COVID-19 patients and stroke or acute kidney injury, click here and here. To read about complicating conditions for COVID-19 patients, click here.