Opisthotonic posturing in Guillian-Barre syndrome.

INTRODUCTION

Here we report a child of Gullian Barre syndrome (GBS) with opisthotonic posturing and we subsequently detected Scrub typhus in him.

CASE REPORT: An 11-year-old boy presented with progressive motor quadriparesis with transient bladder retention, bilateral facial weakness, diminished gag reflex, absent reflexes and his nerve conduction studies suggested Acute Motor Axonal Neuropathy (AMAN) GBS. His power gradually started recovering after one week. However, he had opisthotonus and signs of meningeal irritation. The child's CSF examination was consistent with GBS. His bacterial, fungal, tubercular microscopy and cultures and viral markers were negative. IgM for Borrelia and Leptospira and HIV ELISA were negative. IgM for scrub typhus, however, came out to be positive. Hence, we gave him azithromycin and he recovered almost completely in 3 months.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge there is no previous report of opisthotonic posturing in GBS patients. This could be due to radicular involvement in immune mediated etiology of GBS.