Prognosis in Guillain-Barré syndrome.

The case-records of 71 patients from previous therapeutic trials were used to determine features in clinical presentation that might be useful in predicting the outcome of the Guillain-Barré syndrome. The major features adversely affecting prognosis were severe maximum deficit requiring ventilation and failure to improve within 3 weeks of reaching peak deficit. The risk of poor outcome in a patient who required ventilation and failed to improve within 3 weeks was 86%.