[The Gulf war syndrome]

SPARSE DATA: The Gulf war syndrome remains a little know entity since its first appearance 10 years ago. The objective of our work was to synthesize the data published on the subject in the scientific literature. We analysed the results of American and English epidemiological surveys, from which it was difficult to distinguish the existence of a univocal syndrome. IMPRECISE DEFINITION: It is difficult to give a clear clinical definition of the syndrome, the signs of which fluctuate depending on the studies. Chronic fatigue is frequently associated with the Gulf war syndrome, although some studies have described electrophysiological neurological lesions. NUMEROUS HYPOTHESES: The role of stress, vaccinations and their adjuvants, exposition to neurotoxic substances and weak uranium have been incriminated. We propose that multiple factors be integrated in the research for the genesis of this atypic syndrome.