Comprehensive Review on Neuro-COVID-19 Pathophysiology and Clinical Consequences

Abstract

Aside from the respiratory distress as the predominant clinical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, various neurological complications have been reported with the infection during the ongoing pandemic, some of which cause serious morbidity and mortality. Herein, we gather the latest anatomical evidence of the virus’s presence within the central nervous system. We then delve into the possible SARS-CoV-2 entry routes into the neurological tissues, with the hematogenous and the neuronal routes as the two utmost passage routes into the nervous system. We then give a comprehensive review of the neurological manifestations of the SARS-CoV-2 invasion in both the central and peripheral nervous system and its underlying pathophysiology via investigating large studies in the field and case reports in cases of study scarcity. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.