Encephalopathy associated with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis

Respiratory syncytial virus is an extremely common cause of childhood respi ratory infections resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Althoug h apnea is a well-known complication in young infants with respiratory sync ytial virus bronchiolitis, the encephalopathy associated with this infectio n is not well recognized. Our study reveals an incidence of encephalopathy of 1.8% in a total of 487 patients with respiratory syncytial virus bronchi olitis studied over a period of almost 4 years. Seizures were the presentin g complication. Based on our study of a cohort of children with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis, we believe that neurologic complications, a lthough relatively uncommon, represent a significant component of this comm on childhood illness. Furthermore, respiratory syncytial virus has been sho wn to release several mediators that could directly or indirectly be neurot oxic and induce an encephalopathy associated with the respiratory illness.