Tremor Following Guillain Barré Syndrome

Neuropathic tremor occurs with damage to the peripheral nervous system. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) causes acute paralysis following nerve inflammation sometimes resulting in long-term disability. It is unclear how frequent and severe tremor is following GBS.

We aimed to assess the frequency and features of tremor following GBS.

We enrolled 18 patients with GBS treated in a secondary care center within a 4-year period. Evaluations were done with the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin tremor rating scale (FTM-TRS). We compared these features with a cohort of consecutive patients with untreated essential tremor (ET).

There were 13 males and 5 females with a mean age at evaluation (S.D.) of 41.5 ± 14.0 years and at GBS onset of 40.2 ± 13.7. No patient had history of tremor before GBS. Upper limb tremor was identified in 16 (89%) cases, 35.5% of patients had FTM-TRS score ≥10 points. Tremor was mostly kinetic, jerky with low amplitude with a total score of 10.94 ± 11.84 in the FTM-TRS. Compared with patients with ET, those with GBS-tremor were younger and had lower scores in all subscales of the FTM-TRS (P value < 0.05 for all comparisons). In a multivariate linear regression analysis "days of hospitalization" had a positive association with the total FTM-TRS score (P = 0.001).

Tremor was common following GBS. This tremor is mild compared with patients with ET, but adds functional impact.