Undergoing Surgery May Increase Risk Of Developing Guillain-Barré Syndrome

No one really knows what causes Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that involves the peripheral nervous system. However, a new study suggests that undergoing surgery may be one of the major contributing factors to developing GBS, especially for people with cancer or other autoimmune diseases.

Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare muscle disorder in which a person's immune system attacks nerve cells, damaging the peripheral nervous system connecting the brain and spine with the rest of the body. Symptoms usually include muscle weakness that can increase in intensity and in some cases lead to total paralysis. When it interferes with breathing, it can cause the patient to die.

According to Medical News Today, the study, published in the online issue of Neurology Clinical Practice, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, revealed that 15 percent of those who developed the syndrome had been under the knife within two months prior to developing the autoimmune disorder.

"The results of our study were surprising," said study author Sara Hocker, MD, Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "We did not expect to see a higher percentage of patients who developed the syndrome after having surgery. In addition, our research found that having cancer or autoimmune disease may predispose a person to develop Guillain-Barré syndrome after surgery."

For the study, researchers examined 208 patients with GBS with an average age of 55 years old. Most of the surgeries done to the patients were gastrointestinal, cardiac or orthopedic. The researchers also found that doctors used general anesthesia in 58 percent of the cases and conscious sedation in the rest of the surgeries.

Findings showed that people who had cancer within 6 months before developing the disease were seven times more at risk of developing GBS after the surgery than those who did not have cancer. It is also important to note that people with other autoimmune disorders also had an increased chance of developing GBS.

Patients with ulcerative colitis or type-1 diabetes were also found to be five times more likely to develop GBS after surgery than those with no autoimmune diseases. Of the 31 people who developed post-surgical GBS, 19 or 61 percent had an associated malignancy and nine patients or 29 percent had autoimmune conditions, Medical Xpress reported.

Dr. Hocker emphasizes the safety of having surgical procedures and the rare incidence of post-surgery GBS. "It's very important to note that the occurrence of Guillain-Barré syndrome is extremely rare after surgery," she said.

"Tens of thousands of people had surgery during the study period, and only a very small number of them developed Guillain-Barré. Still, we found that patients with cancer or autoimmune disease may be more susceptible. More research needs to be done," she added.