Engineering

Adverse effect

ARDS

Respiratory distress

Ventilation (architecture)

Surgery

Anesthesia

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Mechanical engineering

Complication

Phrenic nerve

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Internal medicine

Paralysis

Dysgeusia

Respiratory system

Medicine

Disease

Lung

Anosmia

European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine

We describe an overweight COVID-19 patient with respiratory distress preceded by anosmia/dysgeusia with no lung injury shown on CT, angio-CT or ventilation/perfusion scans. Orthopnoea and paradoxical abdominal respiration were identified. Phrenic paralysis, demonstrated by examination of patient breathing, and on x-ray while standing breathing in and out, explained the respiratory distress. This is a rare and previously undescribed neurological complication of COVID-19 infection caused by vagus nerve injury.

Respiratory Distress in SARS-CoV-2 without Lung Damage: Phrenic Paralysis Should Be Considered in COVID-19 Infection