Levison LS, et al. - In Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) patients, a 6.6-fold increased mortality was observed during the first 6 months after GBS hospital admission, vs the background population of the same age. Mortality continued to be elevated for about 4 years after GBS, and then leveled off to a similar long-term death rate.

• This study included 2414 patients with GBS and 23,909 matched people from the general population, to compare the short-term, intermediate, and long-term mortality in both groups.

• In the GBS group and general population group, short-term mortality was 4.8% and 0.8%, respectively, yielding a hazard ratio (HR) of 6.6 (95% CI = 4.0–5.8).

• Intermediate mortality was estimated to be 7.6%, vs 5.8% for the general population, corresponding to an HR of 1.5 (95% CI = 1.3–1.8).

• Following the first 4 years, similar long-term mortality was noted between GBS patients and the general population (HR = 1.1, 95% CI = 0.9–1.2).