Effect of COVID 19 pandemic on the neurology department hospitalization with analysis of the neurological complications secondary to COVID 19 and vaccination against COVID 19.

Abstract

Objective: We investigated the effect of the pandemic on neurological hospitalizations and complications associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection or vaccinations.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of patients hospitalized in our neurology division from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2022 as the opt-out study. We classified the neurological diseases into nine subgroups, evaluated changes of neurological disease characteristics, and analyzed patients hospitalized with the complications from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection or after the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination over three eras based on the pandemic stages: (1) pre-pandemic, (2) during the pandemic but before vaccines, and (3) during the pandemic with vaccines.

Results: Overall, 1756 patients were included in the analyses. The patient characteristics significantly changed throughout the pandemic (p < 0.01). Although the number of autoimmune cases did not change throughout the pandemic (p = 0.53), that of psychological cases and that of unknown cases were significantly changed (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). There were four infectious cases and 11 cases following vaccination from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2022. The 11 postvaccination cases involved 10 kinds of neurological diseases.

Conclusions: The neurological characteristics significantly changed throughout the pandemic and there were diverse neurological complications following vaccinations.