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INTRODUCTION: Patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections are at risk of developing neurological complications. Critical illness neuromyopathy is one of the most important neurological complications in the long term and a serious cause of morbidity. Our study aimed to characterize critical illness neuromyopathy's clinical and electrophysiological features in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: Patients admitted to the neurophysiology laboratory of Erzurum City Hospital between October 2020 and December 2022 due to the development of intensive care unit-acquired weakness after COVID-19 infection were evaluated retrospectively. The relationship between electrophysiological findings, patients' total muscle strength, and Barthel index of daily living scores was compared. RESULTS: Twenty-two patients diagnosed with critical illness were included in the study. Eight patients had critical illness neuropathy, four had critical illness myopathy, and ten had electrophysiological findings of critical illness neuromyopathy. Muscle strength and Barthell scores of patients with critical illness neuromyopathy at the time of first diagnosis were statistically lower than those with critical illness neuropathy or myopathy. As the degree of polyneuropathy worsened and the number of myopathic muscles increased in electromyography, a statistically significant decrease was observed in the muscle strength and Barthell scores of the patients at the first diagnosis, 1st, and 6th months. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Electrophysiological findings of critical illness neuromyopathy in COVID-19 patients provide information on functional outcomes in the short and medium term. Therefore, early electrophysiological study should be performed in patients with suspected critical illness, the severity of the disease should be determined, and rehabilitation should be started immediately after diagnosis. |
