Prevalence of Tracheotomy and Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy in Patients with Guillain–Barré Syndrome

Some patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome require respiratory management by tracheotomy and/or nutritional management by tube feeding; however, few studies have reported the follow-up course in these patients. The objective of this study was to investigate the follow-up course of tracheotomy and gastrostomy in patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome. The study subjects were 50 patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome (25 males, 25 females; mean age, 51.1 ± 18.7 years) who were admitted to the Hiroshima City Rehabilitation Hospital during the period from April 2008 to December 2015. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records to determine the presence or absence of tracheotomy and/or feeding tube, and the timing of withdrawal from these treatments. During the acute phase, 15 patients underwent tracheotomy and 14 underwent tube feeding management. A tracheotomy tube was inserted for 110 days or longer in five patients, and four of these five patients also had a gastrostomy tube inserted. Among the 14 patients in the tube feeding group, seven underwent nasal feeding and seven underwent percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy. All patients had the nasal tube removed (mean duration of nasal tube placement, 62.1 ± 46.5 days); however, the gastrostomy tube could not be removed in two patients. Our findings indicate that patients in the acute phase of Guillain–Barré syndrome carry a relevant risk of long-term tube feeding and prolonged need of an artificial airway.