Stroke in critical COVID-19 patients: a cautionary tale from the frontlines

Arch Med Sci Atheroscler Dis. 2020 Dec 29:5:e263-e270. doi: 10.5114/amsad.2020.102423. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Introduction: Although Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is primarily a disease of the respiratory system in its transmission and clinical manifestations, physicians have also reported a tropism toward the nervous system.

Methods: Neurological symptoms can occur as one of many systemic manifestations of a critical form of the disease or in isolation as the predominant presenting complaint.

Results: We report a series of 6 patients who suffered significant cerebrovascular accidents while being treated for critical COVID-19 in the intensive care units of a quaternary care hospital in New York's Hudson valley.

Conclusions: This series demonstrates how a relatively rare but catastrophic neurological complication can occur in patients with COVID-19 while they are being managed for their more common problems such as respiratory and renal failure.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cerebrovascular accident; coronavirus; stroke.