Long term disability and social status change after Guillain–Barré syndrome

Abstract

Although over 90% of our GBS patients had a more or less complete functional recovery, almost 30% of them had to make substantial changes in daily life. These findings indicate that GBS still has a significant impact on patients' life which may go beyond their residual disability or impairment. Treatment of GBS should not be only aimed at improving patients' disability but also at limiting the impact of the disease on their social life.

What are the experiences of adults returning to work following recovery from Guillain-Barré syndrome? An interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…The findings of this study support current evidence concerning residual physical difficulties, quality of life post-GBS, and people's sense of vulnerability [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]19]. All participants placed extremely high value upon work and regarded the process of returning to work as a very significant step towards moving forwards with their lives, and recovering health, cognitive stimulation, social relationships and a 'normal' self-image.…”

“…A need for part-time work for an extended period after GBS, or early retirement, has been noted in other studies [6,7,9,10]. Many researchers suggest that residual physical impairments following onset of GBS are responsible for changes to work patterns, specifically loss of power [6,7,11,12], muscle pain [11], disturbed sensation [6,12] and fatigability [5]. But physical impairment may not be the sole explanation [9].…”

“…For most, gradual recovery begins after a few days or weeks and continues over several months, though progress is very variable. Bersano et al [5] reported that 21 out of a total of 70 participants identified that they were not able to perform their usual activities, such as outdoor walking, sport or housework 2 years post-onset. Similar findings were reported by Bernsen et al [6,7].…”

“…One criticism of the quantitative research concerns the limited sensitivity of many of the tools used to assess long-term problems in terms of impairment, disability, roles and occupations. For example, the Modified Rankin Scale has been criticised [4,5,9]. Even though this scale provides a good measure of physical impairment, it may be inadequate for evaluating how residual impairments may hamper people's lives in relation to their occupational and social activities.…”

Guillain–Barré syndrome in Colombia: where do we stand now?

“…Almost all the patients with this condition require hospitalization and one-third of them need to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) because of respiratory failure, dysautonomia, or because of medical complications [58]. Most of the patients require therapeutic plasma exchange or intravenous immunoglobulin infusion therapy [59] and long-term disability, and change in their social status is not uncommon [60]. The mortality reported in the articles included in our review is still high (15 %).…”