Introduction:

Coronaviruses are causative agents of respiratory, hepatic, intestinal and neurological diseases. The neurological implications caused by acute respiratory syndrome due to coronavirus 2 have raised several opinions. The clinical involvement and pathophysiologic mechanisms related to neurological complications in patients with COVID-19 are currently poorly understood.

Objective:

to describe the neurological involvement associated to SARS-CoV-2 according to its pathophysiopathogenic basis.

Methods:

a search was carried out, mainly in PubMed, with the descriptors COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and neuro. Scientific journals on the Internet and official Cuban and foreign press media were consulted. The manual published by the Spanish Society of Neurology in April 2020 was reviewed. The analysis-synthesis and historical-logical methods were used when associating the historical neurological affectations of the different coronaviruses with the current one and the deductive inductive method.

Conclusions:

the most frequent neurological affectations associated with SARS-CoV-2 are myalgias, headaches, cerebrovascular disease, encephalopathies, encephalitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, disorders of the senses and consciousness and weakness; they are related to the triggering of inflammatory processes, with alterations caused to the respiratory centers of the brainstem, with mechanisms of muscular damage and with its neuroinvasive potential.

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