Acute pharyngeal-cervical-brachial type of Guillain-Barré syndrome, masquerading brainstem stroke in a child

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Syed, Riaz Ahmed

Affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, King Fahad military hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. Riaz Ahmed Syed, Department of Pediatrics, King Fahad military hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Tel.: +966 535556205; E-mail: paedbrain@yahoo.com

Abstract: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) manifests clinically as an acute onset of generalized symmetrical and ascending weakness of the limb muscles with areflexia. Several variant forms of the disease with unusual distribution of muscles involvement have been described. Pharyngeal-brachial-cervical form of the disease is one of rare variants of GBS and only a few of cases have been reported in children. Here we report a 13-month-old boy, who developed acute weakness of pharyngeal, bulbar, cervical and upper limb weakness and the initial diagnostic work up were done to rule out acute brain stem stroke. We concluded that, while taking all other etiologies into consideration, pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant of GBS should be considered in patient's symptoms with acute bulbar and upper extremity weakness in order to institute appropriate early management.

Keywords: Guillian-Barré syndrome, pharyngeal-cervical-brachial, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography

DOI: 10.3233/JPN-120576

Journal: Journal of Pediatric Neurology, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 289-291, 2012