Cureus . Persistent Cortical Blindness Following Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) as a Complication of COVID-19 Pneumonia

[tetano]

Cureus


. 2021 Jan 19;13(1):e12794.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.12794.
Persistent Cortical Blindness Following Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) as a Complication of COVID-19 Pneumonia


Mohamed Elhassan[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ola Saidahmed[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Ayobami Adebayo[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Neil Archibald[SUP] 4 [/SUP]



Affiliations

• PMID: 33500867
• PMCID: PMC7817550
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.12794

Abstract

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic emerged in China in December 2019. Since then, there have been growing reports of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases with neurological involvement. We present a case of a 54-year-old woman who presented with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, complicated by a prolonged intensive care stay and posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). This resulted in persistent cortical blindness (Anton's syndrome). PRES has only rarely been reported in relation to SARS-CoV-2 infection and no patients have developed persistent cortical blindness. We summarise the clinical presentation of the patient and review the current literature.

Keywords: anton's syndrome; cortical blindness; covid-19; posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (pres); sars-cov-2.