The Landry-Guillain-Barré syndrome: Complications, prognosis and natural history in 123 cases

Abstract

One hundred and twenty-three patients, 68 males and 55 females in whom acute polyradiculitis Guillain-Barré appeared at an age of between 1,6 and 76 years were re-examined after 0.9 to 12.3 years. The initial symptoms, the signs during the acute phase, in particular the cranial nerve signs and central nervous signs, as well as findings in the cerebrospinal fluid and complications are described. Three patients died during the acute phase. At follow-up only 57% of the patients were completely cured. In 22% motor signs, mainly distal in the lower extremities were found. Only 6 of these patients however were handicapped. Twenty-two patients had loss of one or more tendon reflexes, in general the ankle jerk. Only 6 showed very slight central nervous system signs. Eleven of 55 follow-up cases had pathological findings in needle electromyography. A disturbance of conduction velocity or distal latency was also found in several adults and children without residual clinical signs. The time span between the maximum of the initial signs and the beginning of recovery seemed to be particularly long in patients who showed residual signs on follow-up. These patients also seemed frequently to have had a severe tetraparesis in the initial phase. We could not confirm the therapeutic effect of cortisone or ACTH in our patients: amongst the 30 adults treated with cortisone 6 (20%) had residual signs at follow-up, whilst 5 (25%) of the 22 untreated ones had similar findings.