[Neurological complications of patients with lymphomas]

The lymphomas are neoplasias which may affect the nervous system at any stage of development, and affect the quality of life and survival time of these patients.

To identify the neurological complications of patients with lymphomas, determine the survival time and the cause of death in these patients.

We made a prospective study in 270 patients with the diagnosis of lymphoma who were admitted to the Hospital Clinico Hermanos Ameijeiras Ciudad de la Habana (Cuba). The complications were classified as direct or indirect, the average survival time was determined according to the Kaplan-Meier curve and the cause of death was established with anatomopathological confirmation.

We found 26 patients to have neurological complications. Of 188 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphomas, 12.2% had neurological disorders and in these patients leptomeningeal infiltration was the main neurological complication. In the 82 patients with Hodgkin's disease, 3.6% had neurological disorders of which herpes zoster infection was the commonest. The average survival time following diagnosis and the neurological features was 9.7 months. The neurological complication was the cause of death in 57.1% of those who died.

The patients with lymphomas had direct and indirect complications, with an average survival time of less than one year, and most died of a nervous system complication.