Guillain-Barré syndrome.

The Guillain-Barré syndrome is an acute or subacute, relatively symmetric lower motor neuron paralysis from which greater than 85 per cent of patients obtain a full or functional recovery. Diagnosis is made by recognition of a characteristic set of clinical features that can be confirmed by electrodiagnostic and other laboratory findings. It is a neurologic emergency in which patients are subject to respiratory failure and cardiac arrhythmias.