According to Ann Walling, Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is the leading cause of flaccid paralysis in western countries. GBS is a syndrome in which the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system. The first symptoms of this disorder include varying degrees of weakness or tingling sensations in the legs. In many instances, the weakness and abnormal sensations spread to the arms and upper body. These symptoms can increase in intensity until the muscles cannot be used at all and the patient is almost completely paralyzed.
GBS is a rare, self-limiting, autoimmune neurological disorder that presents as rapidly progressive symmetric limb weakness. Usually, GBS occurs a few days or weeks after the patient has had symptoms of a respiratory or gastrointestinal viral infection, but according to Tom Richard (1998), MD, no one knows exactly what triggers GBS (Richard, 1998). Patients require supportive therapy that is appropriate to the extent of their symptoms. There is no known cure for GBS. Immunotherapy Weekly (2003) reports that Current treatment strategies are aimed at mitigating the harmful effects of the immune system on peripheral nerve (Guillain-Barre syndrome has most treatments based on symptom attenuation, 2003). Approximately one-third of patients with GBS require intensive care and ventilator support. Approximately 75 percent of cases reach maximal dysfunction within two weeks, and 94 percent reach it within four weeks.
Symptoms resolve gradually. In one study, 70 percent of patients reported full recovery within one year, while 22 percent of patients were unable to run, and 8 percent could not walk without assistance after one year. The percentage of patients who die from GBS varies among studies but is approximately 7 percent (Walling, 1998). In GBS, the immune system starts to destroy the myelin sheath that surrounds the axons of many nerve cells, or even the axons themselves, which carry nerve signals. As...