Neurologic manifestations of AIDS: a review of fifty cases in Santos

OBJECTIVE: To review the neurologic manifestations of AIDS in patients who were admitted to Hospital Guilherme Álvaro (HGA) due to any clinical manifestation of the disease. DESIGN: Case series. PATIENTS: All HIV+ patients admitted to the Faculty Hospital (HGA) between July 96 and April 97 were included in this review. RESULTS: From the 117 HIV+ patients admitted to hospitalization due to AIDS-related symptoms, 50 (42.7%) presented neurologic manifestations. The most prevalent of these was neurotoxoplamosis (68%), but a variety of other neurologic diseases were observed. Only 36% of these 50 patients had neurological signs and symptoms as the main complaint for admission, 12% of the patients had at least complained of some neurologic dysfunction at the time of admission and 10% had no neurologic complaints at all. The remaining 42% (21 patients) only complained of neurologic manifestations of AIDS when specifically asked. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of neurologic manifestations of AIDS is very high in patients admitted to hospital. Even in the absence of neurologic-related complaints, these patients have to be carefully questioned and examined in the search for an underlying neurologic complication which may present high morbidity and mortality.