Five cases of acute infective polyneuritis (Guillain-Barré syndrome) in children.

Guillain, Barre and Strohl (1916) described a syndrome which they believed to be new. Their findings were based on the study of two soldiers complaining of abnormal sensations in the feet, followed by weakness of the legs and difficulty in walking. Later the legs and then the arms became paralysed. In neither patient was there preceding illness or fever and both made a complete recovery. Lumbar puncture produced a cerebrospinal fluid with normal pressure and cell count but containing increased protein, in one case 250 mg. and in the other 85 mg. per 100 ml. Similar cases were also described in England by Holmes (1917) and by Bradford, Bashford and Wilson (1918). They did not, however, give cerebrospinal fluid protein levels. The latter workers claimed to have produced a similar disease in monkeys by subdural inoculation of material from fatal cases. The condition came to be known in English writings as acute infective polyneuritis, although the infective nature was never confirmed experimentally by later workers. The first reported case of the syndrome in a child was that of Monnier-Vinard (1925). Taylor and McDonald (1932) described 16 cases of which two were in children. Ansay (1937) stated that the syndrome was rare in children and reported a case in a boy of 81 years. Van Bogaert, Philips, Radermecker and Verschraegen (1938) reported a small epidemic of cases of which six were in children. Debre and Thieffry (1951) discussed the features of 32 personal cases in children and thought that the frequency and clinical picture of the condition in childhood were insufficiently recognized. The disease in childhood seems to have been little described in the English literature, although there are papers in American, French and other journals. Petch (1949) described eight cases of which one was in a child.