Rare Neurological Presentations of Paediatrics COVID-19 Cases Reported at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mizoram, India

Abstract

Apart from the regular respiratory symptoms, neurological manifestations like headache, encephalopathy, encephalitis, seizure, coma, demyelinating disorders, and aseptic meningitis has been seen in paediatric Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) positive cases. The present case series is about three children, of age range 9 to 15 years, who presented with encephalitis between January 2022- February 2022. All the children tested positive for COVID-19, either by Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) or by Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). One patient had necrotising encephalitis like changes in the MRI neuroimaging of the brain, but negative Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) PCR in Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). The second patient’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain was suggestive of acute encephalopathy, but with normal CSF analysis. The third patient presented with clinical findings suggestive of encephalitis with normal CSF study and normal MRI. The children were managed with antipyretics, antiepileptics, antibiotics, and antiviral, injection mannitol, and steroids. After the completion of the treatment, all the children were alive and were discharged from the hospital.

Keywords

• altered sensorium
• coronavirus
• encephalitis
• encephalopathy
• outcome