Clinical Profile and Outcome of Patients presenting with Guillain - Barré Syndrome in a Medical Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Care Hospital.

BACKGROUND

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an inflammatory, autoimmune disorder of the peripheral nervous system that is acute in onset, self-limited, and can result in significant morbidity, placing a burden on the healthcare system. This study aims to study the clinical profile and outcome of patients with GBS who require intensive care unit (ICU) and mechanical ventilation (MV).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

After Institutional Ethics Committee approval, a single-center, prospective, observational study was conducted, recruiting 51 patients from the medical ICU with GBS over 18 months. Patients were categorized into three groups as per the timing of the commencement of immunomodulator therapy. The association between dependent variables like the need for MV, patient outcome, and independent factors like time of initiation of immunomodulator therapy from the time of onset of symptoms and age-groups; were analyzed using the Chi-squared test and the overall disability sum score (ODSS) with Spearman's rank correlation test.

RESULTS

Out of 51 patients in the study, (52.94%) were male, with a male:female ratio of 1.12:1. Most of them had quadriparesis (98.04%) or bulbar symptoms (56.86%). A total of 24 (47.05%) patients required MV. The presence of bulbar weakness at admission had a statistically significant positive correlation with the need for MV (Spearman's ρ = 0.663, p = 0.001), the need for prolonged MV (Spearman's ρ = 0.457, p = 0.001), duration of MV (Spearman's ρ = 0.512, p = 0.001) and duration of ICU stay (Spearman's ρ = 0.516, p = 0.001); and a negative correlation with improvement in ODSS (Spearman's ρ = -0.409, p = 0.001). Early commencement of immunomodulator therapy was associated with a significantly decreased probability of requiring ventilatory support (p = 0.001), decreased probability of requiring prolonged MV (p = 0.04), and a decreased duration of ICU stay (p = 0.004).

CONCLUSION

Early commencement of immunomodulator therapy decreased the probability of requiring ventilatory support and improved the outcome. Breathlessness and bulbar symptoms at admission were poor prognostic indicators in terms of the need for MV and the duration of both the ICU stay and MV.