Study design
Literature review.
Objectives
Describe the implications of post-COVID syndrome due to neurological sequelae including treatment and the differences that may exist between this group of patients and those who present these events not associated with COVID-19.
Methods
A non-systematic review of the literature was carried out in PubMed and Science Direct databases, using the keywords “Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome”; “Neurological complications”; “Neurologic Manifestations” “COVID-19″ and ”Rehabilitation“, as well as synonyms, which were combined with the operators ”AND“ and ”OR“.
Results
The COVID-19 viral caustive agent, SARS-CoV-2, has a high affinity for human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor on type II pneumocytes. This receptor is also expressed in neurons and glial cells. Based on the foregoing and other not so clear mechanisms, it is stated that SARS-CoV-2 has tropism for the nervous system, being evident through the neurological manifestations observed in patients with mild, moderate and severe phenotype of the disease such as anosmia, ageusia, headache, cerebrovascular accidents, Guillain-Barré syndrome, seizures, and encephalopathy. This can generate severe sequelae and even fatal outcomes in those affected.
Conclusions
Neurological complications caused by COVID-19 are frequent and represent a risk that compromises the functional capacity and the life of patients. The suspicion of these conditions, the strict control of metabolic alterations and cardiovascular risk factors, the effective and safe treatment of these entities, are a current challenge throughout the pandemic. The rehabilitation process in these patients is a challenge. This is due to the limitations generated by multi-organ damage, as well as risk of brain death.
In the authors' experience, emergency EC-IC bypass in patients with acute ischemic injury was both safe and effective. This population was characterized by relatively young patients with severely limited collateral circulation. In this series of 13 carefully selected patients, bypass was successful in arresting progression of stroke, and in some cases resulted in rapid neurological improvement.
The brain-lung interaction can seriously affect patients with traumatic brain injury, triggering a vicious cycle that worsens patient prognosis. Although the mechanisms of the interaction are not fully elucidated, several hypotheses, notably the "blast injury" theory or "double hit" model, have been proposed and constitute the basis of its development and progression. The brain and lungs strongly interact via complex pathways from the brain to the lungs but also from the lungs to the brain. The main pulmonary disorders that occur after brain injuries are neurogenic pulmonary edema, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and ventilator-associated pneumonia, and the principal brain disorders after lung injuries include brain hypoxia and intracranial hypertension. All of these conditions are key considerations for management therapies after traumatic brain injury and need exceptional case-by-case monitoring to avoid neurological or pulmonary complications. This review aims to describe the history, pathophysiology, risk factors, characteristics, and complications of brain-lung and lung-brain interactions and the impact of different old and recent modalities of treatment in the context of traumatic brain injury.
Dissecting PICA aneurysms are rare lesions with an apparent propensity for bleeding. Individualized management including distal revascularization with PICA sacrifice or circumferential wrap/clip reconstruction to reinforce the dissected segment produced good outcomes. Patients treated with aneurysm wrapping may show dramatic angiographic improvement of the dissected segment.
The authors report a novel management option for patients with complex dissecting aneurysms of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA). The authors reviewed the medical records and neuroimaging studies of 3 patients who underwent a novel surgical treatment for complicated dissecting PICA aneurysms. The mean follow-up period was 1.1 years, and no patient was lost to follow-up. Two patients were in poor condition following an acute, severe subarachnoid hemorrhage, and 1 presented with headaches and a remote history of bleeding. All patients underwent surgical occlusion of the PICA beyond the tonsillar loop, distal to the aneurysmal segment. Intraoperative and delayed follow-up angiography demonstrated progressive diminution in size of the aneurysmal dilation but persistent filling of the proximal PICA segments supplying the brainstem. Outcome was good in all cases. This novel technique has been used successfully in 3 cases and, to the authors' knowledge, has not been reported previously.
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