Pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant of guillain-barré syndrome

Abstract

Guillain-Barré syndrome is an acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Infrequent loco-regional variants, like the pharyngeal-cervical-brachial, have been described. We report the case of a 63-year-old male admitted to the emergency department with cervical and upper limb weakness, inability to swallow and chew, he also presented a rapidly progressive acute respiratory failure due to weakness of the respiratory muscles secondary to the pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome. This variant, although unusual, presents a well-defined clinical pattern and diagnostic criteria, which is important in order to start an early treatment to improve the prognosis, not always favorable, to these patients.