Guillain-Barré syndrome

What Is It?

Guillain-Barré syndrome is an uncommon disorder that causes damage to the peripheral nerves. These nerves send messages from the brain to the muscles, instructing the muscles to move. They also carry sensations such as pain from the body to the brain. The nerve damage often causes muscle weakness (often to the point of paralysis), and can cause abnormalities of sensation, including pain, tingling, "crawling skin" or a certain amount of numbness.

Guillain-Barré syndrome can become a medical emergency if the weakness affects the chest muscles responsible for breathing. If chest muscles become paralyzed, the patient can die from lack of oxygen. People with this syndrome must be carefully monitored, usually in a hospital, to make sure that breathing and other vital functions are maintained.

Guillain-Barré syndrome is an autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the myelin sheath, which wraps around long nerve cell bodies much like insulation around a water pipe. Myelin protects the nerve and helps to speed the transmission of electrical impulses down the nerve. If the myelin is destroyed, nerve impulses travel very slowly and can become disrupted. If muscles don't get proper stimulation through the nerves, they will not function properly.

The causes of the syndrome are unknown, but many experts think that the immune system is trying to fight an infectious organism (bacteria or virus) and accidentally injures the body's tissues in the process.

Guillain-Barré syndrome is uncommon, affecting fewer than 4,000 people in the United States each year. Why the disorder strikes some people is a mystery. In more than two-thirds of patients, Guillain-Barré syndrome occurs one to three weeks after a viral disease, such as a cold or the flu, or following a bacterial infection, particularly with bacteria called Campylobacter jejuni, which cause intestinal infections. Research into the causes of Guillain-Barré syndrome is ongoing.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome vary from person to person and may be mild or severe. Most often, the first prominent symptom is weakness, and most often the weakness is felt in both legs. Over time, the weakness often involves the arms or head, affecting eye and head movement and speech. Occasionally, the weakness will affect the arms or muscles of the head before affecting the legs.

Sometimes the weakness is preceded or accompanied by a sensation of tingling, most often in the lower legs and feet. With each muscle group affected, there also can be pain and/or tingling. Guillain-Barré syndrome can temporarily impair the body's control of blood pressure, leading to dangerously low blood pressure when the person rises to stand after lying down or sitting.