Symptoms

Symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) include:

• Numbness or tingling in the hands and feet and occasionally around the mouth and lips.
• Muscle weakness on both sides of the body in the legs, arms, and face.
• Difficulty speaking, chewing, and swallowing.
• Inability to move the eyes.
• Back pain.

The first symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome include tingling in the fingers and toes and weakness in the arms and legs that may appear several days or weeks after a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection. Tingling is a very common symptom that may be caused by a wide variety of medical problems. But after muscle weakness develops in addition to tingling, GBS becomes a more likely cause of these symptoms. Tingling and weakness may spread to the arms and upper body. GBS can become life-threatening if weakness spreads to muscles that control breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Muscle weakness caused by GBS often gets worse over 1 to 4 weeks before it stabilizes and then gradually improves. In some people, symptoms continue to get worse for up to 3 months. In children, persistent symptoms of GBS may include tiring easily and having muscle pain during exercise.⁴

There are different forms of GBS, but symptoms are often a lot alike. Most GBS symptoms are caused by damage to nerve coverings (demyelination). This causes problems with how messages travel between the brain and the rest of the body.