Patients with coronavirus admitted to intensive care were more likely to suffer from brain dysfunction than patients with other respiratory diseases.
Report informs that scientists from Vanderbilt Research University, together with doctors from Spain, reached this conclusion and published the study results on the EurekAlert portal.
Experts explained that the manifestations of brain dysfunction could be the inability to navigate in space, focus attention, and loss of consciousness. Scientists decided to study the symptoms of more than 2,000 patients who suffered COVID-19 in severe form and were in intensive care units.
It turned out that patients suffered from this condition for an average of 12 days. 82% spent about ten days in a comatose state; half of the citizens had such a state for three days.
"These rates are twice as high as among non — visible patients in the intensive care unit," said researcher Brenda Pan.
She explained that 88% of the study participants were connected to ventilators.
In those who managed to communicate with family and friends, the risk of brain dysfunction decreased by almost a third.
Scientists suggest that brain dysfunction in patients with coronavirus developed as they realized that the infection is deadly.