Case Report
Senility and COVID-19 as two possible risk factors for loss of consciousness: A rare case report

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104240Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Knowledge about the loss level of consciousness (LOC) caused by COVID-19 has been limited to a few case reports. Thus diagnostic and management difficulties continue to remain.

  • Aging and COVID-19 can increase the risk of developing LOC, which makes the prognosis of the disease hazy in this group of patients.

  • Therefore, extraordinary attention should be paid to elderly COVID-19 patients.

Abstract

Introduction

and Importance: More than two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still grappling with this dilemma. COVID-19 covers a wide range of symptoms. Loss of consciousness (LOC) is a very rare symptom that can threaten a patient's life and blur the prognosis of recovery.

Case presentation

An 89-year-old woman was presented to the emergency department with LOC (Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score = 3) without any history of the underlying disease and was immediately admitted to the intensive care unit. In brain imaging, severe small vessel disease was diagnosed by observing partial dilatation of the ventricles, sulcus, and hypodense areas in the periventricular area. Lung imaging propounded COVID-19 by detecting the ground glass pattern with 50%–75% involvement. After detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 nucleic acid by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, COVID-19 treatment was performed according to the national protocol. Finally, she was discharged after 26 days of hospitalization with partial recovery.

Clinical discussion

COVID-19-induced cytokine storm along with old age appears to increase LOC risk. It can be claimed that COVID-19-induced LOC can be considered as one of the symptoms of COVID-19 in the elderly population. Therefore, more attention should be paid to this population, which is more at risk.

Conclusion

Few reports illustrate the LOC as a COVID-19 presentation. This report highlights the fact that older people are more at risk for COVID-19-induced LOC than other age groups and should be given more care.

Keywords

Loss of consciousness
Coronavirus disease 2019
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection
Elderly
Glasgow coma scale
Case report

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