COVID-19

This important session was held in the main auditorium and started with the lecture on “Ethical considerations during the Covid-19 pandemic” by Marco Vergano from Italy. He made a deep overview on clinical and organisational ethics for the allocations of patients in intensive care. The lecture went through strategies for scarce resources. Prioritising patients is the key point in a pandemic situation. He discussed the situation in Italy since February when the first Covid-19 case was registered and then followed the exponential increase in cases, which made Italy the most affected country by Covid-19 after China. His group has published allocation strategies for ICU resources, including triage principles and criteria. Prof Vergano gave an overview of UK well as American guidelines. Interestingly, some data showed that some patients will never completely recover after ICU admissions. Therefore, “ICU is not a panacea”. Age and associated frailty are the two most important factors in this decision-making process. Finally, the most important lessons of this time is that “tolerating uncertainty” might be the next medical revolution.

COVID-19 has swept across Europe and the world since the turn of the year, and resulted in this highly topical session being added to the virtual Congress programme 2020, as a further response to the pandemic. Reflecting the common challenges we all face, and the importance of international cooperation, this was a joint EAN/AAN session, chaired by Professor Claudio Bassetti and Professor James Stevens, the Presidents of our two Associations.

In this paper, Dinkin et al., describe two patients who developed cranial neuropathies within days of respiratory symptoms related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and were found to have abnormal perineural or cranial nerve findings on MRI.

In this study recently published in Radiology, the authors describe brain magnetic resonance imaging findings in patients in the intensive care unit with COVID-19 pneumonia.

In this paper, the authors report the case of a 40-year-old man who developed acute brainstem dysfunction 3 days after hospital admission with symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

In order to inform the neurological community and patients, the Italian Association of the Peripheral Nervous System (ASNP), the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology (SINC) and the Italian Society of Neurology (SIN) have developed a joint document to guide best practice for managing patients with immune-mediated neuropathy during the global spread of COVID-19.

This paper, recently published in Revue Neurologique, summarises recommendations for the care of neuromuscular patients during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak from the French Rare Health Care for Neuromuscular Diseases Network (FILNEMUS).

In this consensus statement recently published in Neuro-Oncology, an international group of experts present mitigation strategies and treatment guidance for patients suffering from high grade gliomas (HGG) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most medical centres are postponing elective procedures and deferring non-urgent clinic visits to conserve hospital resources and prevent spread of COVID-19.

In this review, the authors explore the risk of COVID-19 in PD patients in terms of susceptibility to severe disease, impact on PD disease severity, potential long-term sequelae, and difficulties of PD management during this outbreak.

In this correspondence recently published in Lancet Neurology, the authors report the results of the pilot phase of an investigation of effects of COVID-19 among Italian people with multiple sclerosis, based on a core dataset collected from treatment providers through a specifically designed web-based case report form.

In this paper, the authors report a patient treated with natalizumab for relapsing-remitting MS who developed COVID-19 and recovered in a few days without complications.

In this case report recently published in Neurology, Barzegar et al. present the case of a 42-year-old woman affected by relapsing-remitting MS treated with fingolimod who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and had a favourable outcome.

In this retrospective multicentre cohort study, just published in JAMA, the authors describe the association between use of hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, and clinical outcomes among hospital inpatients diagnosed with COVID-19.

In this multicentre, prospective, open-label, randomised, phase 2 trial the authors assessed the efficacy and safety of combined interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir, and ribavirin for treating patients with COVID-19.