Guillain-Barré syndrome and COVID-19: clinical cases

S.A. Bondar, A.L. Maslyansky, A.Yu. Smirnova, M.A. Novozhilova, K.V. Simakov, S.N. Yanishevskiy, A.O. Konradi

V.A. Almazov National Medical Research Center, Saint Petersburg

Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), which subsequently increased to the pandemic scale, the number of reports concerning disease neurological manifestations has increased. One of the rare among them is Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). It is necessary to accumulate data to determine the patterns of the SARS-CoV-2-induced GBS clinical course and clarify its pathogenesis, which is probably autoimmune. The article presents two clinical cases concerning the GBS development during typical COVID-19 manifestations in 58-year-old men. The interval from the COVID-19 onset to the GBS manifestation was 5 and 13 days, respectively. In described cases, GBS was more severe than GBS development during COVID-19: both patients required invasive ventilation, both developed sepsis and acute kidney injury, which led to the fatal outcome of one of them. Antibodies to gangliosides were detected in only one patient, but they could not be detected. The patterns of the manifestations, GBS diagnosis and treatment in the presented patients should contribute to additional research, including providing greater clarity in the disease pathogenesis.

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Gu illain-Barré syndrome, intravenous immunoglobulin, plasmapheresis, antibodies to gangliosides.

For citation: Bondar S.A., Maslyansky A.L., Smirnova A.Yu. et al. Guillain-Barré syndrome and COVID-19: clinical cases. RMJ. 2021;5:60–64.