Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of critically ill patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Abstract Objective This prospective study reports the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) patients admitted to the intensive care units of Namazi Hospital, the largest referral center in the south of Iran, between March 20, 2016, to March 19, 2021. Results One hundred and thirty-two GBS patients were identified with an average age of 47.87 ± 15.41 years and a male/female ratio of 1.69:1. A significant proportion (49.3%) were classified as having axonal disease. The electrophysiological classification was strongly related to muscle weakness: 51.4% of patients classified as axonal had lower limb power < 3, compared with only 36% of those classified as demyelinated. This group also needed mechanical ventilation more frequently (54% vs. 46%) and for a longer duration (26 (9–37) vs. 10 (1–61) days). Pneumonia and sepsis were each observed in 16% of patients, while 12% developed a urinary tract infection. Acute Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP; 41.5%) was the commonest variant of GBS in our study. Six (3.8%) patients died and 126 (96.2%) survived. Conclusion The axonal type of disease was detected in a large portion of our critically ill GBS patients; these patients needed mechanical ventilation more frequently and for a longer duration than those in other electrophysiological study categories. Our in-hospital mortality proportion fell within the range reported in other published studies.