Neurological Complications of COVID19 during March 2020 at LCMC Health University Medical Center

We reviewed the electronic medical records (EMR) of patients hospitalized during the peak of the pandemic, March 1st through March 31st, to document the type and frequency of neurological problems seen in patients with COVID-19 at presentation to the emergency room. Secondary aims were to determine: 1) the frequency of neurological complaints during the hospital stay; 2) whether the presence of any neurological complaint at presentation or any of the individual types of neurological complaints at admission predicted three separate outcomes: death, length of hospital stay, or the need for intubation; and 3) if the presence of any neurological complaint or any of the individual types of neurological complaints developed during hospital stay predicted the previous three outcomes. Setting: The Louisiana Health Sciences Center – New Orleans Institutional Review Board and the University Medical Center Clinical Research Review Committee approved the study protocol. Data acquisition: We reviewed the electronic medical records (EMR) of patients hospitalized during March (March 1st through March 31st) 2020 at the University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO), who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the same hospitalization. The EMR team generated a list of 257 patients admitted for COVID-19. We excluded seven patients because of a negative COVID-19 test result or incomplete medical record documentation. Three neurology residents (DC, MS, DB) reviewed the EMR in detail to capture the relevant medical history, clinical course, and laboratory test results and abstracted data into an electronic data collection spreadsheet. We recorded the presentation or development of the following neurological complaints: headache, syncope, altered mental status, seizure, status epilepticus, and ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke.