Mortality associated with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults of Mexican health institutions

Introduction. Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is a neurological emergency representing the main cause of flaccid paralysis around the world, affecting all age groups. Little is known about the essential epidemiology of GBS in most Latin American countries. Aim. To determine the mortality associated with the diagnosis of GBS in hospital discharges during 2010 in hospitals of the Ministry of Health, Mexico. Patients and methods. We analyzed the database of hospital discharges of institutions pertaining to the Ministry of Health. Study cases were identified by the code G61.0 of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10). We excluded records of patients younger than 18 years and patients without complete demographic information. Results. During the year 2010 there were 2,634,339 discharges from hospitals of the Ministry of Health. We identified a total of 467 hospitalizations due to GBS in adults (median age: 41 years; 62.1% male) from 121 health institutions of the 32 Republic States. The highest frequency of GBS hospitalizations occurred during summer and fall. The median hospital stay was 8 days. The hospital mortality rate was 10.5%. The probability of death was directly associated with age, without a particular trend regarding gender, hospital care or state. Conclusions. In 2010 GBS hospital mortality in this part of the Mexican health system was higher than that reported in contemporary studies. A seasonal association was observed regarding the frequency of hospitalizations for GBS.