Swallowing Features of Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Introduction: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has its main commitment for a muscle weakness that provides a progressive disability resulting in difficulties in the functional abilities and respiratory failure.

Objectives: This study aims to report the degree of dysphagia and level of oral intake of three patients with GBS.

Methods: This study was developed at Santa Casa/Porto Alegre, Brazil, in the period of July 2012 to July 2013. A total of three patients with GBS females were evaluated with a mean age of 47 years. Of the three patients, two were referred by the neurology team for speech evaluation with main motive of suspicion of Oropharyngeal Dysphagia (DOF).

Results and Conclusion: For the investigation of swallowing, the Gugging Swallowing Screening. Two patients had dysphagia lightweight with low risk of aspiration and one patient had dysphagia moderate with risk for aspiration. The level of initial oral intake varied between 7 (all orally) and 1 (nothing by mouth) according to the Functional Oral Intake Scale. After a mean period of 20 days of speech therapy, all patients with dietary restrictions progressed in the level of oral intake, and one remained with alternative means of supply and oral and the other one with oral and consistency adaptations. It was observed that patients with GBS present DOF in different degrees and they need speech therapy attention in order to promote food security in each patient. We found that there is a positive progression in levels of oral food intake after speech therapy.

Keywords: Guillain-Barré syndrome, deglutition disorders, speech language pathologist.