Very few COVID-19-associated autoimmune encephalitis cases have been documented in children. This case report focuses on a previously healthy four-year-old girl who presented to the emergency room of the National Children's Hospital in Costa Rica in a postictal state due to a tonic-clonic seizure that progressed to status epilepticus. She had no previous history of fever or associated trauma. She was considered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive by epidemiological linkage four weeks prior to the event, and her immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels for SARS-CoV-2 were positive. She presented with generalized decrease in muscle strength, she couldn’t even walk, also dyskinetic movements in upper extremities, language impairment, frequent seizures, retrograde amnesia, and orolingual dyskinesias. An extensive diagnostic workup was performed, including bacterial and viral panel in cerebrospinal fluid, however the only positive result was the IgG for SARS-CoV-2. Electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings were compatible with autoimmune encephalitis. An antibody panel was performed, which was negative in cerebrospinal fluid and positive for anti-gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)/b1 in serum. She received three antiseizure drugs, plasmapheresis, intravenous gamma-globulin, methylprednisolone, and rituximab, which partially improved her condition. She currently has refractory epilepsy, memory problems, loss of language skills, and neuropsychiatric dysfunction. To our knowledge, this is the first case of autoimmune encephalitis secondary to SARS-COV-2 infection in a pediatric patient in Costa Rica.

Good sleep quality is essential for a child’s wellbeing. Early sleep problems have been linked to the later development of emotional and behavioral disorders and can negatively impact the quality of life of the child and his or her family. Sleep-associated conditions are frequent in the pediatric population, and even more so in children with neurological problems. Monitoring devices can help to better characterize sleep efficiency and sleep quality. They can also be helpful to better characterize paroxysmal nocturnal events and differentiate between nocturnal seizures, parasomnias, and obstructive sleep apnea, each of which has a different management. Overnight ambulatory detection devices allow for a tolerable, low cost, objective assessment of sleep quality in the patient’s natural environment. They can also be used as a notification system to allow for rapid recognition and prompt intervention of events like seizures. Optimal monitoring devices will be patient- and diagnosis-specific, but may include a combination of modalities such as ambulatory electroencephalograms, actigraphy, and pulse oximetry. We will summarize the current literature on ambulatory sleep devices for detecting sleep disorders in children with neurological diseases.