[Guillain-Barre syndrome in children]

Twenty two cases of Guillian-Barré syndrome were studied at the Children's Hospital of the City of Morelia (State of Michoacán, México), in a four-year period; such that number represents tow out 1 000 of the patients hospitalized in that length of time. The subject of this paper is to get acquainted with the clinical features of this syndrome in this part of the country, to establish the usefulness of the study of the spinal fluid and to know the evolution of the disease in relation to the treatment with corticoids. In all of our twenty two cases, there were coincidental features with the ones reported by others; eventhough, the statistics of this syndrome in the childhood are few. The dissociation between the amounts of albumin and the count of cells in the spinal fluid confirms the diagnosis, but its abscence is not enough to exclude it. Apparently, the clinical evolution of this disease is not modified by ths use of corticoids. Finally, the most moderns etiopathogenic concepts of this syndrome are reviewed as well as its probable etiological association with the infectious mononucleosis virus (Epstein-Barr's virus).