This study is intended to investigate neurological abnormalities associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Complete daily neurological examinations will be routinely conducted in intensive care unit patients. Specific biological analyses will also be performed in these patients by collecting additional blood samples from an arterial or central catheter, every 2 days. These clinical and biological examinations will be continued throughout patient's stay in the intensive care unit.
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic is leading to a large number of patients in intensive care units due to severe hypoxemic pneumonia. After an acute phase that may require controlled mechanical ventilation and deep sedation, removal of sedation often reveals a pathological awakening in the vast majority of patients. This encephalopathy state remains, to date and to our knowledge, unexplained. Clinical features do not appear to fully correlate with regular delirium. This encephalopathy might be explained by deep and prolonged hypoxemia, a wide use of sedation drugs, systemic inflammation or the hostile ICU environment.