4% of children hospitalized with COVID-19 develop neurological diseases, research claims

It is believed that children are more likely to tolerate coronavirus infection than adults, but 4% of children hospitalized with COVID-19 develop neurological diseases, UK scientists noted.

According to Medportal.ru, scientists analyzed data from more than 1,300 children under 18 who were hospitalized with COVID-19. After discharge from the hospital, 52 of them were diagnosed with neurological and psychiatric diseases. According to experts, on average, such disorders appear in 3.8 out of 100 children who have undergone hospitalization due to coronavirus infection, and most often in blacks and Asians (69% of patients).

All participants in the study were divided into two groups: the first included children with a primary neurological disorder associated with COVID-19, the second included patients with neurological manifestations of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a rare condition that causes inflammation in the walls of the arteries and able to obstruct blood flow to the heart. It occurs in children a few weeks after being infected with the coronavirus.

The first group included 27 children, and most often they had demyelinating diseases, in which the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged and the transmission of signals along the affected nerves is disturbed, severe encephalopathy, Guillain-Barré syndrome, chorea (movement disorder), psychosis and transient ischemic attack.

In 25 children from the second group, that is, with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, encephalopathy, behavioral changes, hallucinations and signs of the peripheral and central nervous system were diagnosed.

The authors of the study noted that, compared with patients with MIS-C, children from the first group had a higher prevalence of neuroimmune disorders. However, patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome were more likely to be admitted to intensive care. At the time of discharge from the hospital, due to various complications, 33% of children from the first group had disabilities, among patients with MIS-C - 28%, another child died as a result of a stroke.

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