AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC, CLINICAL, AND THERAPEUTIC STUDY OF CHILDHOOD GUILLAIN-BARRE-SYNDROME IN KUWAIT - IS IT RELATED TO THE ORAL POLIO VACCINE

We studied Guillain-Barre syndrome, affecting children 12 years old or less, throughout Kuwait, in the period between January 1, 1992, and M arch 31, 1997. Nineteen children had the diagnostic criteria of Guilla in-Barre syndrome, with an overall annual incidence rate of 0.95/100,0 00 population at risk. Female patients outnumbered male patients with a sex ratio of 1.4:1. There was a clustering of cases in winter and sp ring and in the year 1996. The disease symptoms were relatively severe in our patients because only 16% (3 of 19) of them were able to walk at the height of their illness, whereas the rest were bed or chair bou nd or needed assisted ventilation. Two patients had the electrodiagnos tic features of axonal neuropathy and both had residual deficits on fo llow-up, whereas the rest recovered fully. All the patients received i ntravenous immunoglobulin. The mean time to walk unaided was 23.5 days (range, 2-84 days) after intravenous immunoglobulin and excluding the two patients with axonal neuropathy, and full recovery was achieved i n a mean time of 103 days (range, 30-300 days). Contrary to previous s tudies, we found no correlation between oral polio vaccine administrat ion and Guillain-Barre syndrome in 2 successive years (1995 and 1996) during a nationwide campaign targeting children less than 5 years old.