CHOP Neurologic Infections Clinic Streamlines Care

Since our clinic began in 2016, we have provided care for over 200 children. We see some patients as one-time consults, and provide longitudinal care for others, depending on their needs. This makes us uniquely positioned to not only provide expert clinical care, but also to serve as a platform for relevant patient-driven research activities and to advance care and outcomes.

A unique, jointly run clinic 

Our clinic is co-led by Pediatric Neurologist, Jennifer McGuire, MD, MSCE, and Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, Sanjeev K. Swami, MD. We also have a dedicated clinical coordinator to assist with scheduling.  

We hold outpatient clinic sessions one to two times monthly. Our sessions are unique in that they are carried out as joint visits in which our two providers meet with patients and families at the same time to gather a patient history and for counselling. This cohesive, multidisciplinary approach improves our ability to address the complex medical needs of these patients.

Our evaluation includes:

• A detailed medical history, including any pre-existing neurologic diagnoses (e.g., intellectual disability, developmental delay, headache, seizure) and treatments, infectious history, and immunologic history

• Review of current clinical features, such as age of infection onset (prenatal or postnatal) and any related medical and neurologic symptoms

• Comprehensive general medical and neurologic examinations

• Detailed review with families of any prior neuroimaging and lab studies

Our team sees hospital follow-ups from an acute illness as well as outpatient physician referrals for the following conditions:

• Bacterial meningitis 

• Suppurative brain infections, including brain abscess, subdural empyema and epidural abscess

• Infectious encephalitis

• HSV and other viral meningoencephalitis

• Facial droop/Bell’s palsy

• Lyme meningitis and Lyme-related facial droop

• Emerging neurologic infections, including:

  • Neurological complications of dengue fever

  • Enterovirus 71 infection with neurologic involvement

• Congenital infections that affect the nervous system, including:

  • CMV, toxoplasmosis, syphilis, Zika virus

• Acute neurologic complications of COVID and MIS-C

• Other conditions on a case-by-case basis

Treatment for neurologic infections varies depending on the type of infection, the location of the infection and a child’s overall health. 

For questions or to schedule an appointment, please contact Cindi Skazenski at 609-452-0825.

Joint Publications/Abstracts

• Frankl S, Coffin SE, Harrison JBB, Swami SK, McGuire JL. Influenza-associated neurologic complications in hospitalized children. J Pediatr. 2021;239:24-31.e1.

• Otto WR, Paden WZ, Connors M, Joerger T, Buzi A, Rizzi M, Huh J, Storm PB, Heuer G, Kennedy B, McGuire J, Swami S, Lang SS. Suppurative intracranial complications of pediatric sinusitis: A single-center experience. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2021;10(3):309-316.

• McGuire JL, Tuite N, Swami S, Avery RA. Assessment of the diagnostic yield of non-culture CSF infection testing in children. JAMA Network Open. 2(7).

• Guez-Barber D, Swami SK, Harrison JB, McGuire JL. Differentiating Bell's palsy from lyme-related facial palsy. Pediatrics. 2022;149(6). 

• Miyares L, Swami S, McGuire JL. The diagnostic value of cerebrospinal fluid lyme testing in children. Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting, Virtual May 2021. Notes: platform presentation.

Other Recent NeuroID-related Publications:

• Alcamo AM*, McGuire JL*, Kanthimathinathan HK, Roa JD, Fink EL (*co-first authors). Worldwide epidemiology of neuro-coronavirus in children: Lessons for the next pandemic. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2021;33(6):580-590.

• Brosius SN, Otto W, Waldman A, Russo M, McGuire J. Clinical reasoning: A 12-month-old male with staring episodes, ataxia, and right-sided weakness. Neurology. 2022;99(18):805-810.

• Jacobwitz M, Favilla E, Patel A, Giglia TM, Tiang K, Ravishankar C, Gaynor JW, Licht DJ, McGuire JL*, Beslow LA* (*co-last authors). Neurologic complications of infective endocarditis in children. Cardiol Young. 2023;33(3):463-472.

• Fink EL, Robertson CL, Wainwright MS, Roa JD, Lovett ME, Stulce C, Yacoub M, Potera RM, Zivick E, Holloway A, Nagpal A, Wellnitz K, Czech T, Even KM, Brunow de Carvalho W, Rodriguez IS, Schwartz SP, Walker TC, Campos-Miño S, Dervan LA, Geneslaw AS, Sewell TB, Pryce P, Silver WG, Lin JE, Vargas WS, Topjian A, Alcamo AM, McGuire JL, Domínguez Rojas JA, Muñoz JT, Hong SJ, Muller WJ, Doerfler M, Williams CN, Drury K, Bhagat D, Nelson A, Price D, Dapul H, Santos L, Kahoud R, Francoeur C, Appavu B, Guilliams KP, Agner SC, Walson KH, Rasmussen L, Janas A, Ferrazzano P, Farias-Moeller R, Snooks KC, Chang CH, Yun J, Schober ME; Global Consortium Study of Neurologic Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID) Investigators. Prevalence and risk factors of neurologic manifestations in hospitalized children diagnosed with acute SARS-CoV-2 or MIS-C. Pediatr Neurol. 2022;128:33-44.

• Becker AE, Chiotos K, McGuire JL, Bruins BB, Alcamo AM. Intracranial hypertension in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. J Pediatr. 2021;233:263-267.

• Del Valle Mojica C, Montoya J, McGuire J, Plama KL, Shekdar KV, McLeod R, Contopoulos-Ioannidis DG. Late diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis with macrocephaly in dizygotic twins after incidental detection of leukocoria: A case report. J Pediatr. 2021;236:301-306. 

• Matesanz S*, McGuire JL*, Hopkins S, *co-first authors. Acute flaccid myelitis: Characteristics and outcomes of 2014 and 2016 cases at a single center. J Pediatr. 2019;272-276.