Encefalitis asociada a infección por SARS-COV-2

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 produced a pandemic in 2019, which spread rapidly worldwide and led to a great imbalance in the health field. This virus produces a disease known as COVID-19 and can cause neurological complications such as encephalitis, which consists of inflammation at the level of the brain parenchyma. Its early diagnosis is crucial to be able to ensure the survival of individuals, since it can lead the patient to admission to the intensive care unit. The treatment consists of life support, a decrease in inflammation and intracranial pressure, although these measures are sometimes not enough because it has a high mortality rate. The aim of this article is to identify the main clinical features of encephalitis associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A narrative bibliographic review was carried out using various search engines such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science and Scopus of the last five years in English and Spanish. It was concluded that SARS-CoV-2 has repercussions at the level of the central nervous system, resulting in the presence of pathologies such as encephalitis, which has a low incidence among patients, but not negligible mortality, however its prognosis is not yet well established.