WHO Covid 19 - Neurological Abnormalities in SARS-CoV-2 ICU Patients

The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic is leading to a large number of patients in intensive care units due to severe hypoxemic pneumonia. After an acute phase that may require controlled mechanical ventilation and deep sedation, removal of sedation often reveals a pathological awakening in the vast majority of patients. This encephalopathy state remains, to date and to our knowledge, unexplained. Clinical features do not appear to fully correlate with regular delirium. This encephalopathy might be explained by deep and prolonged hypoxemia, a wide use of sedation drugs, systemic inflammation or the hostile ICU environment.