Abstract

HERNANDEZ ALMEIDA, Esequiel; BALI DIP, David; CRUZ BATISTA, Marbelis Ramona  and  MORENO RAMIREZ, Oscar. Presentación clínica y evolución del síndrome de Guillain-Barré en una unidad de cuidados intensivos. Rev cubana med [online]. 2002, vol.41, n.6. ISSN 0034-7523.

A descriptive study was carried out to determine the clinical presentation and evolution of 45 patients with diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome at the Intensive Care Unit of "Celia Sánchez Manduley" Provincial Hospital, in Manzanillo, Cuba, between 1982 and 1999. It was observed that the viral infections of the upper respiratory tract anteceded the appearance of the clinical picture in almost half of the patients. The motor deficit in the limbs, the osteotendinous areflexia, the autonomic dysfunction, the motor taking of the trunk and the respiratory muscles and of the VII cranial pair were the predominant clinical manifestations. Patients were classified, according to the initial motor deficit and its progression, into 5 different clinical groups. The diagnosis was mainly based on the clinical manifestations and on the findings of cerebrospinal fluid. Most of the patients were discharged alive and with no sequelae. Mortality behaved according to what is reported in medical literature. Bacterial bronchopneumonia presented isolated or associated with other complications as the main cause of death in the 9 dead individuals.

Keywords : GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME [diagnosis]; GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME [therapy]; INTENSIVE CARE UNITS; CRITICAL CARE.