Encephalitis as a Clinical Manifestation of COVID-19: A Case Series

Abstract

COVID-19 is a novel virus which causes a variety of clinical manifestations in the body, some of which are 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 wary of the possibility that patients affected by COVID-19 can present with encephalitis. Only a few studies are available so far regarding the neurological manifestations of this novel virus which highlights the need for this study. We present a case series of 4 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 all the common causes of encephalitis. Brain magnetic resonance imaging and cerebrospinal fluid 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 possible treatment options with good results, as the patients described in our case series responded well to these medications.

Keywords

• case report
• corticosteroids
• covid-19
• encephalitis
• tocilizumab
• neurological manifestations