Real-world treatment of adult patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome over the last two decades

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated treatment characteristics of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in a real-world setting between 2000 and 2019. We analyzed clinical improvement between nadir and last follow-up in patients with severe GBS (defined as having a GBS disability scale > 2 at nadir) and aimed to detect clinical factors associated with multiple treatments. We included 121 patients (74 male; median age 48 [IQR 35–60]) with sensorimotor (63%), pure motor (15%), pure sensory (10%) and localized GBS (6%) as well as Miller Fisher syndrome (6%). 44% of patients were severely affected. All but one patient received at least one immunomodulatory treatment with initially either intravenous immunoglobulins (88%), plasma exchange (10%) or corticosteroids (1%), and 25% of patients received more than one treatment. Severe GBS but not age, sex, GBS subtype or date of diagnosis was associated with higher odds to receive more than one treatment (OR 4.22; 95%CI 1.36–13.10; p = 0.01). Receiving multiple treatments had no adjusted effect (OR 1.30, 95%CI 0.31–5.40, p = 0.72) on clinical improvement between nadir and last follow-up in patients with severe GBS. This treatment practice did not change over the last 20 years.