Alternative Therapies to Immunoglobulin for Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Key Messages

• Plasma exchange may be more effective than placebo in reducing disability scale scores and improving the likelihood of disability improvement in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome.
• Plasma exchange showed similar effectiveness as IV immunoglobulin on disability outcomes in treating Guillain-Barré syndrome.
• Limited evidence from a health technology assessment subsection suggests that plasma exchange may have a similar safety profile as IV immunoglobulin.
• An evidence-based guideline suggests that plasma exchange can be used as 1 of the immune therapies (IV immunoglobulin alternatives) for children with Guillain-Barré syndrome who have contraindications for IV immunoglobulin or when IV immunoglobulin is ineffective. However, most supporting evidence was from adults.
• We did not find any study reporting on the rate of recovery, duration of hospitalization, or cost-effectiveness of plasma exchange for treating Guillain-Barré syndrome that met the inclusion criteria for this report.