What you need to know
A new study by JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, JFK University Medical Center, and St. Peter’s University Hospital identified peripheral nerve injuries in some patients who had been hospitalized and on ventilators for COVID.
The study, Focal Peripheral Neuropathies Observed in Patients Diagnosed With COVID-19, published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, calls for the creation of evidence-based guidelines that identify neurologic aftereffects of COVID and establish treatments.
Researchers reviewed the charts of patients who received nerve conduction studies and electromyography (EMG). The study focused on patients who had been on ventilators for more than 21 days and had confirmed COVID cases. The study outlined the cases of eight patients, aged 40 to 74, with unexpected nerve damage. The patients all had some co-morbidity, such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
After the nerve damage was identified, the patients received rehabilitation, such as bracing and physical therapy, and have improved considerably.
Neurologic injuries can be part of the constellation of secondary symptoms of COVID. The new study contributes to the body of COVID research as well as the emerging field of post-COVID rehabilitation.
JFK Johnson established a COVID Rehabilitation Program in 2020 to help patients with long-term pulmonary, cardiac, neurologic, and other post-COVID symptoms.
The study called for evidence-based guidelines to identify secondary COVID symptoms, such as peripheral nerve damage and other neurological symptoms — and to find the best rehabilitation strategies to help patients recover as fully as possible.