[Neurorehabilitation in the acute and post-acute phase: what did we learn from the first wave of COVID-19?]

Diserens, Karin; Carda, Stefano; Epiney, Jean-Benoît; Meyer, Ivo; Jöhr, Jane

The majority of patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) present mild to moderate illness and recover without hospitalization. Nevertheless, 5 % of cases require hospitalization in the intensive care unit, with 15 % of them showing severe central and peripheral nervous system manifestations. These patients should be considered high risk patients and their management must include prevention of a potential accompanying cascade of negative factors. In order to optimize care, it is essential that signs of neurological damage are searched for as early as in intensive care so that appropriate neurorehabilitation can be started immediately and continued in a specific unit for patients with neurological sequelae at post-acute and outpatient phases.