Traditional herbal medicine for Guillain-Barré syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rapid-onset disease caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system. Since most standardized treatments for GBS focus on acute phase treatment, there are limitations to the rehabilitation and management of general conditions. In East Asian countries, herbal medicine has been used to treat GBS and aid rehabilitation. Therefore, herbal medicine is considered a complementary treatment for GBS. Hence, the present study was conducted to investigate the clinical evidence of herbal medicine treatment for GBS and to provide a research strategy for the future.

PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, CNKI, CiNii, and Science ON were searched from inception to December 4, 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing conventional Western medicine (CWM) combined with herbal medicine (treatment group) and only CWM (control group), to evaluate the effects of herbal medicine combined with CWM as a treatment for GBS were included. All bibliographic data from the collected studies were summarized in Endnote X9 (Clarivate Analytics). The meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager (Revman) 5.4.1. software. Effectiveness was assessed by Total Effective Rate (TER), Modified Barthel Index (mBI) score and Manual Muscle Testing (MMT) score. Safety was evaluated as the occurrence of a significant adverse events (AEs).

Ten RCTs that comprised 764 participants were included. Based on the meta-analysis, TER was found to significantly improve in the treatment group compared with the control group (risk ratios: 1.14, 95 % confidence interval: 1.09 to 1.20, p < 0.00001). The mBI score and MMT score of upper limb and lower limb also significantly improved in the treatment group compared with the control group. No significant AEs were reported in any included study.

The results of this study suggest that the combination of CWM and herbal medicine may be a better and safer method of physical function recovery and rehabilitation in patients with GBS. Further qualified studies are required to establish this hypothesis.