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. 2023 Oct;30(10):3277-3285.
doi: 10.1111/ene.15955. Epub 2023 Jul 5.

Hospital-diagnosed morbidities and recent surgery as risk factors for developing Guillain-Barré syndrome

Lotte S Levison  1 , Reimar W Thomsen  2   3 , Henning Andersen  1
Affiliations

Hospital-diagnosed morbidities and recent surgery as risk factors for developing Guillain-Barré syndrome

Lotte S Levison et al. Eur J Neurol. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Background and purpose: This study was undertaken to determine the association of hospital-diagnosed morbidity and recent surgery with risk of subsequent Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) development.

Methods: We conducted a nationwide population-based case-control study of all patients with first-time hospital-diagnosed GBS in Denmark between 2004 and 2016 and 10 age-, sex-, and index date-matched population controls per case. Hospital-diagnosed morbidities included in the Charlson Comorbidity Index were assessed as GBS risk factors up to 10 years prior to the GBS index date. Incident major surgery was assessed within 5 months prior.

Results: In the 13-year study period, there were 1086 incident GBS cases, whom we compared with 10,747 matched controls. Any pre-existing hospital-diagnosed morbidity was observed in 27.5% of GBS cases and 20.0% of matched controls, yielding an overall matched odds ratio (OR) of 1.6 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4-1.9). The strongest associations were found for leukemia, lymphoma, diabetes, liver disease, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and cerebrovascular disease, with 1.6- to 4.6-fold increased risks of subsequent GBS. GBS risk was strongest for morbidities newly diagnosed during the past 5 months (OR = 4.1, 95% CI = 3.0-5.6). Surgical procedures within 5 months prior were observed in 10.6% of cases and 5.1% of controls, resulting in a GBS OR of 2.2 (95% CI = 1.8-2.7). Risk of developing GBS was highest during the first month following surgery (OR = 3.7, 95% CI = 2.6-5.2).

Conclusions: In this large nationwide study, individuals with hospital-diagnosed morbidity and recent surgery had a considerably increased risk of GBS.

Keywords: Guillain-Barré syndrome; epidemiology; neuropathy.

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References

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