[Polyradiculoneuritis. Increase of the occurrence of the severe forms]

The clinical histories of 97 cases admitted from 1963 to June 1977 with the diagnosis of polyradiculoneuritis were reviewed. A change in the epidemiology related with an increase in frequency of severe forms that reached up to 50.0% during the last 3 years, against 15% for the previous years, was observed. Overall lethality was 4.1%. Permanent sequelae resulted in 18.3% of the patients and the greatest contribution to this came from the group of severe forms, since 53.3% of them was definitely affected.