GUILLAIN-BARRE-SYNDROME IN STOCKHOLM COUNTY, 1973-1991

In order to describe the incidence of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in Stockholm County (SC) and hospital use by GBS patients, we conducted a retrospective epidemiological study on GBS covering 1973-1991, using the Hospital Inpatient Register in SC. There were 556 patients, bona fide residents in the county during the study period, discharged from hospitals with GBS diagnosis. The mean annual incidence, age-adjusted to the European population, was 1.84 (2.15 for males and 1.57 for fema les) per 100,000 population. The incidence increased with age and show ed a bimodal distribution with peaks in the 10-29 and 70-79 age-groups . Annual incidence rates were highest in 1978 and 1983. Neither hetero geneity of annual or monthly rates nor linear trends during the period were found to be significant, except in 1978 for patients below 40 ye ars of age, RR 1.72 (95% CI 1.08-2.71) and in 1983 for patients at age s 40 years and over, RR 1.48 (95% CI 1.02-2.16), when compared with GB S incidences in the same age-groups during the remaining study period. The mean +/-SD duration of hospital stay, including long-term care or rehabilitation institutions, for GBS patients, was 86 +/- 210 days, w ith considerably longer duration for the elderly. The rate of hospital use by GBS patients was 162 days per 100,000 inhabitants per year. In accordance with results of prior studies in South-West Stockholm and described GBS epidemics in Sweden, this study supports that an etiolog ically different subgroup of GBS exists at ages below 40 years, and th at relevant but small time-space variations, such as the reported zime ldine epidemic in 1983, resist detection by hospital data analysis of pooled GBS cases. Efficient epidemiological surveillance of GBS may re quire targeted development of clinicoepidemiological tools.