Introduction Intensive insulin therapy (IIT) reduced the incidence of critical illness polyneuropathy and/or myopathy (CIP/CIM) and the need for prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV ≥ 14 days) in two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of IIT in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) and medical intensive care unit (MICU). In the present study, we investigated whether these effects are also present in daily clinical practice when IIT is implemented outside of a study protocol.

Background Several neurologic complications have been reported in close temporal association with both severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, several cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) have been reported in temporal relationship with COVID-19 vaccination, with two small case series describing a specific phenotype with bifacial weakness and paresthesia in the limbs. Methods We retrospectively collected patients who developed a new-onset neuromuscular disorder in the first 6 weeks after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine (either first or second dose). The patients were collected from one tertiary care centre and one secondary care centre from February to July 2021. Results We report eight patients who developed phenotypically diverse neuromuscular disorders in the weeks following COVID-19 vaccination, with a presumed immune-mediated etiology. In our case series, we report three patients with classical GBS, one patient with bifacial weakness with paresthesia variant of GBS, two patients with subacute-onset chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), one patient with brachial plexopathy and one patient with subacute axonal sensorimotor polyneuropathy. Conclusions New-onset neuromuscular disorders with onset in the weeks after COVID-19 vaccination can include diverse phenotypes. A causal relationship between these disorders and the vaccine cannot be proven at present, and further epidemiological studies are needed to further investigate this association.

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