National trends in hospital outcomes among patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome requiring mechanical ventilation.

Several new treatments have been introduced for Guillain-Barré syndrome over the last decade. To assess the impact of these new strategies on outcomes and hospitalization charges among patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome requiring mechanical ventilation, we compared pertinent variables between nationally representative data derived from 1992 and 2002. Compared with patients admitted in 1992, the patients admitted in 2002 showed an increase in hospital charges ($168,600 versus $116,300, P = 0.007), longer hospitalization (52.6 +/- 23.3 versus 40.3 +/- 36.3 days, P = 0.017), and greater in-hospital mortality (11.1% versus 7.6%, P = 0.003). Thus, improvements in therapeutic strategies over that decade are not reflected in mortality, length of hospitalization, or hospital charges in the current study. This outcome may be more reflective of changing patterns of hospitalization rather than relatively futility of new treatments.