The Guillain–Barré Syndrome

Abstract

WITH the virtual elimination of poliomyelitis, Guillain—Barré syndrome has become the most common cause of acute generalized paralysis, with an annual incidence of 0.75 to 2 cases per 100,000 population. Several clinical variants of this demyelinating polyneuropathy have been described, the electrophysiologic aspects better understood, and the immunologic basis clarified, but the diagnosis is still made by clinical acumen and experience. The eponym derives from the description in 1916 by G. Guillain and J.A. Barré, then French army neurologists, and A. Strohl, who performed the electrophysiologic recordings¹; it remains useful because of uncertainty about the cause and pathogenesis of . . .