Transverse myelitis and its relationship with COVID-19 vaccines

Abstract

Introduction: Myelitis is a rare immune-mediated disease, it can be classified according to the affected area as transverse myelitis, longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis, myeloradiculitis. Despite being considered as a rare pathology, cases have been found in clinical trials after the application of the vaccine for COVID-19. Objective: To describe transverse myelitis and its relationship with COVID-19 vaccines. Methodology: A non-experimental research of literature review type was performed, taking articles from different databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, in Spanish and English, from 2019 to 2022. Results: From the articles studied, a total of 596 patients were found who presented the disease after vaccination with the different preparations. Of nine case reports, 5 were secondary to inoculation with AstraZeneca, 4 with Pfizer and 3 with Moderna. While in other five investigations 3 had a higher percentage with AstraZeneca followed by Pfizer. Conclusions: It was determined that transverse myelitis can develop after the application of the vaccine against COVID-19, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, were the immunizations that reported more cases.