Clinical outcomes of patients with seizure admitted for COVID-19: Findings from the Philippine CORONA study.

Objective: Seizure is one of the neurologic manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. There are few studies focused on the outcome of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and seizure.

Methods: This was a subgroup analysis of patients with seizure based on a nationwide, multicenter, retrospective study of COVID-19 patients admitted in 37 hospitals in the Philippines.

Results: A total of 10,881 patients with COVID-19 infection were included. Among these, 27 (0.2 %) patients had pre-existing seizure/epilepsy and 125 (1.1 %) had new-onset seizure. The patients with pre-existing seizure/epilepsy had a mean age of 49 years and majority were males (63.0 %). The patients with new-onset seizure had a mean age of 57 years and majority were males (60.5 %). Among patients with pre-existing seizure/epilepsy, there were no significant differences in the proportion of severe/critical COVID-19 ( = 0.131), all-cause mortality ( = 0.177), full/partial neurologic recovery ( = 0.190), ventilator use ( = 0.106), length of intensive care unit stay ( = 0.276), and length of hospitalization ( = 0.591). Patients with new-onset seizure were 2.65 times more likely to have severe/critical COVID-19 infection ( < 0.001), 3.12 times more likely to die ( < 0.001), and 3.51 times more likely to require a ventilator ( < 0.001) than those without new-onset seizure. New-onset seizure, however, was not significantly associated with full/partial neurologic recovery ( = 0.184) and prolonged length of hospitalization ( = 0.050).

Conclusion: Severe/critical COVID-19 infection, higher mortality rate, and use of a ventilator were significantly higher among patients with new-onset seizure but not among patients with pre-existing seizure/epilepsy.