Clinical and Laboratory Features, Treatment and Prognosis in Children with Guillian-Barre Syndrome

A retrospective study of 42 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in children aged between 7 months and 15 years, registered at the Municipal Clinical Hospital №1 throughout a 7 year period (2007—2014), was performed to investigate the features of pediatric Guillian-Barre Syndrome (GBS). GBS has shown to be the most common cause of AFP in children, with prevalence of 74% of all 31 cases. Clinical manifestations, functional status, laboratory and electrodiagnostic data were evaluated in group of 31 children in order to highlight particular features of childhood GBS in Russia. The highest frequency of GBS was observed in children aged between 1 to 3 with the median 6 [3; 11] years. Boys with GBS outnumbered girls by a 2,1:1 ratio. No seasonal dependence has been observed, with children equally suffering from this disease without a seasonal pattern throughout the year. According to the electrophysiological and clinical data, 24 children were diagnosed with acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP) (77%), 5 with acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) (16%) and 2 with аcute motor-sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN) in a total of cases (7%). Several exclusive features of GBS in children for Russia were discovered. The most common initial symptom was limb pain, with the impartial sensory disturbance found only in 13% of the patients observed, 10% of which were paresthesias and the remaining 3% belonging to hypostesias. Children reached the nadir state rapidly, the median time from onset to nadir was 9.5 [6,25; 12,5] days. Cranial nerve dysfunction at nadir was observed in a greater percentage of patients (51%) compared to that of 23% cases at the onset, with the facial palsy increasing from 10 to 32% and the bulbar palsy from 12 to 19%. The patients were given intravenous immunoglobulin in various doses: from 0.2 to 1.75 mg/kg per course (0.5 [0.5; 0.8] g/kg) and/or plasmapheresis with a median volume of 93 [81; 100] ml/kg per course. The treatment has shown to be effective for the majority of patients, but three children was resistant to the intravenous immunoglobulin. An important feature of pediatric GBS is a nonthreatening prognosis at the point of discharge, with the length of hospitalization numbering in with a median of 28 [20,5; 38] days.