Pain in acute motor axonal neuropathy.

INTRODUCTION/AIMS: Patients with acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) generally have pure motor neuropathy and clinicians usually do not link pain with AMAN. The aim of this retrospective study was to describe the character, location, and intensity of pain in AMAN and acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP) in the acute phase.

METHODS

This was a retrospective study in 44 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) having progressive weakness of more than one limb. The information, including the demographic characteristics, preceding infections, clinical symptoms and signs, severity at nadir, the characteristics of pain, use of analgesics, laboratory and electrophysiological data, and the medical treatment for GBS, were collected from the medical records.

RESULTS

In 44 patients, 40.9% were diagnosed as AMAN, and 34.1% as AIDP. Pain was more prevalent in AMAN (76.5%) than in AIDP (26.7%, P = .02). Low back and extremities were the most common locations of pain in AMAN (7/13 and 7/13, respectively) and AIDP (2/4 and 2/4, respectively).

DISCUSSION: Pain was a common symptom in AMAN in the acute stage. The presence or absence of pain is not useful for distinguishing AIDP from AMAN.