Complications of Covid-19 on the central nervous system

The newfound coronavirus epidemic first broke out in China and soon spread in the world and became a global issue. WHO named it "Covid-19 Syndrome”. Multisystemic involvement and viral inflammation by a virus with more than 3,853 genomes exacerbated the deteriorating situation by the day and led the thought to study its inflammatory effects on other organs. In this article, the effects of Covid 19 on the central nervous system are investigated.

This study was performed by reviewing the referrences and documents which reported the effects of this disease on the central nervous system.

Contemplation of the potential effects of the Covid-19 virus on the brain and in general on the CNS consist a range of or related brain injuries including hemorrhagic lesions, vascular thrombosis, inflammatory lesions of the glial tissue of the brain, brain syndromes, and a variety of neurologic manifestations brought to mind, in which the thalamus and brainstem were considered as sensitive areas to be directly attacked by the virus, and imaging findings revealed these attacks as well. Cytokine storm and the role of ACE2 as the most well-known receptor in cell binding through which viral degradation occurs can be considered as a precursor of the systemic invasion of coronavirus. Although intracranial hemorrhages have major risks to the central nervous system in the Covid-19 pandemic, it should be noted that they are rare phenomena as having been reported in less than one percent of reports mostly were case-report ,therefore it can be said that the role of Covid-19 in causing cerebral hemorrhage cannot be proved.

Obviously, in Covid-19, it is important to choose the appropriate surgical protocols and consider safety points. The decision to perform the surgeries should be made with full knowledge of the risks.