The "Child in the Barrel syndrome"--severe pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant of Guillain-Barre Syndrome in a toddler.

One week after a flu-like prodrome, an 18-month-old boy developed acute severe, symmetrical, painless weakness and wasting of the shoulder girdle and upper limbs, drooling, dysphagia, dysarthria, atrophy and fasciculations of the tongue. Milder paresis involved the mimic muscles and the neck extensors. The legs were intact with brisk reflexes. The flail immobile upper limbs produced the appearance that the boy was restrained in a narrow barrel. Electrodiagnostic findings suggested demyelinating motor neuropathy sparing the legs. CSF (45 days after onset) was normal. Initial recovery was observed but 70 days after onset the child suffered severe relapse and died from respiratory arrest. This is another rare case of the pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant of Guillain-Barre syndrome in infancy with an unusual relapsing course leading to a fatal outcome.