%0 Systematic Review
%T Neuromuscular diseases associated with COVID-19 vaccines: a systematic review and pooled analysis of 258 patients.
%A Tayebi A
%A Samimisedeh P
%A Jafari Afshar E
%A Mahmoudnia S
%A Milan N
%A Ayati A
%A Madady A
%A Rastad H
%J BMC Neurol
%V 23
%N 1
%D 2023 Dec 11
%M 38082244
%F 2.903
%R 10.1186/s12883-023-03486-y
%X BACKGROUND: Neuromuscular diseases (NMD) emerged as one of the main side effects of the COVID-19 vaccination. We pooled and summarized the evidence on the clinical features and outcomes of NMD associated with COVID-19 vaccination.
METHODS: We comprehensively searched three databases, Medline, Embase, and Scopus, using the key terms covering "Neuromuscular disease" AND "COVID-19 vaccine", and pooled the individual patient data extracted from the included studies.
RESULTS: A total of 258 NMD cases following COVID-19 have been reported globally, of which 171 cases were Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), 40 Parsonage-Turner syndrome (PTS), 22 Myasthenia Gravis (MG), 19 facial nerve palsy (FNP), 5 single fiber neuropathy, and 1 Tolosa-Hunt syndrome. All (100%) SFN patients and 58% of FNP patients were female; in the remaining NMDs, patients were predominantly male, including MG (82%), GBS (63%), and PTS (62.5%). The median time from vaccine to symptom was less than 2 weeks in all groups. Symptoms mainly appeared following the first dose of vector vaccine, but there was no specific pattern for mRNA-based.
CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 vaccines might induce some NMDs, mainly in adults. The age distribution and gender characteristics of affected patients may differ based on the NMD type. About two-thirds of the cases probably occur less than 2 weeks after vaccination.