"Abstract
Purpose: ... We aimed to summarize the clinical features of GBS [Guillain-Barré syndrome] associated with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and determine the contrasting features from coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) associated GBS and GBS following other causes...
Materials and Methods: We performed PubMed search for articles published between 1 December 2020 and 27 January 2022 using search terms related to 'SARS-CoV-2 vaccination' and 'GBS'...
Conclusion: There are distinct differences between GBS associated with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and GBS due to other causes. Facial weakness and sensory symptoms were commonly seen in the former and outcomes poor...
Discussion
There were 100 patients with GBS linked to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination during the study period... GBS linked to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination has been reported with all types of vaccines. In two-thirds of patients (68%), it followed the non-replicating viral vector vaccine. Symptoms of GBS developed after the first dose of the vaccine in 80% of patients. The time interval from vaccination to GBS symptoms onset was 11 days (range, 8–14 days)...
Ten patients received no treatment, and details were not available in 13 patients. Of the remaining 77 patients, 68 received evidence-based treatments: IVIG, plasmapheresis, or both. Ten patients received intravenous methylprednisolone and oral steroids or oral steroids alone. There were two deaths. GBS linked to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is associated with poor outcomes. In this systematic review, two patients required long-term ventilation, and 31 (37.8%) were either unable to walk independently or chair or bedbound...
This systematic review suggests distinct differences in clinical features between GBS associated with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and post-COVID-19 GBS, as well as GBS in the IGOS study cohort. Sensory symptoms and signs and unilateral or bilateral facial palsy were frequently noted in patients with GBS associated with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Axonal (AMAN/AMSAN) electrophysiological subtype was more common in the GBS associated with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and associated with poor outcomes. These findings suggest that vaccine-induced peripheral nerve pathology is more severe and has smaller fiber involvement. The exact explanation for these observations is speculative; maybe the antigen composition in the vaccine is different."
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.