Two encephalopathic patients with COVID-19 and elevated intracranial pressure

Abstract

COVID-19, the disease caused by infection with SARS-Cov-2, has proven capable of affecting the central nervous system. Encephalopathy is a well-described phenomenon among COVID-19 patients, but there are few cases in the medical literature that include measurement of intracranial pressure in such patients. In this article, we report two adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who developed acute encephalopathy; both underwent lumbar puncture and were found to have significantly elevated intracranial pressure. One of the patients experienced complete, sustained recovery from encephalopathy after normalization of intracranial pressure. These cases, in conjunction with our review of similar cases outlined in other articles, led us to conclude that future research incorporating measurement of opening pressure of encephalopathic patients with COVID-19 may provide information about the pathophysiology of the neurologic manifestations of the disease, particularly in patients on hemodialysis.