LAUSR

Purpose: To describe characteristics, incidence and outcome of patients with Guillain‐Barre syndrome (GBS) admitted to ICU. Methods: We conducted a binational, retrospective, observational, epidemiological study. We compared the baseline characteristics, physiological conditions and outcomes for GBS patients with or without mechanical ventilation (MV) and of survivors and non‐survivors. Results: We studied 711 patients admitted to 173 ICUs between 2005 and 2015. We found an increasing proportion of GBS admissions per year (P<0.03). 237 patients required MV. These patients had higher APACHE III scores (47 vs 31), worse PaO2/FiO2 ratio (P/F 258 v 341), a significantly longer ICU LOS (25 v 4days) (P<0.0001, all comparisons) and a greater incidence of pre‐ICU cardio‐respiratory arrest (6.7% v 1.2%). Similarly, non‐survivors were 5‐times more likely to have experienced a pre‐ICU cardio‐respiratory arrest. Overall, ICU and hospital mortality were 3.9% and 6.9%, respectively and increased to 9.7% and 14.3% in the MV group. MV patients remained in hospital for almost 40days. Conclusion: GBS represents a small but increasing proportion of ICU admissions with one‐third of patients receiving MV. Overall in‐hospital mortality is relatively low but doubles if MV is needed. These observations provide important prognostic information to clinicians involved in the care of these patients. HIGHLIGHTSOver a decade, the incidence of GBS has increased among ICU admissions and the overall populationMortality rate remained unchanged during this period and much lower than previously reportedOverall, 3% of patients experienced a cardio‐respiratory arrest before ICU admissionVentilated GBS patient typically remained in ICU for approximately a month and in hospital for 40 daysMechanically ventilated patients had a five‐fold greater hospital mortality rate than non‐ventilated patients