Incidence of  Determination of Magnitude of Confusion, Disorientation and Encephalopathy in Patients of COVID-19

Objective: To determine the magnitude of confusion, disorientation, and encephalopathy in patients of COVID-19. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from May 2020 to Apr 2021. Methodology: A total of 183 confirmed cases of COVID-19 who presented to our hospital and fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included. A confirmed COVID -19 case was diagnosed using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). Patient history and examination were done to document the neurologic symptoms. Coronavirus-related encephalopathy and COVID-19 severity were accessed using two distinct criteria. p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: The majority 110(60.1%) of the patients were between 46 to 70 years of age, and only 39.9% were between 20 to 45 years of age. There were a total of 23(12.6%) severe COVID-19 patients. Among them, 60.9% of severe COVID-19 patients were males Among severe COVID-19 patients, 52.2% had encephalopathy (p-value =0.002), a comparable percentage had confusion (p-value =0.002), and 39.1% has disorientation (p-value =0.032). Conclusion: Neurological symptoms are more common among patients who had severe COVID-19, disease. Having additional knowledge about neurological symptoms would render physicians in limited resource settings, to focus on a mental health aspect that is usually ignored. This will make them more capable of dealing with COVID-19 patients, and thus providing treatment in a timely and efficient manner.