Guillain Barre Syndrome: When Legs (and more) Turn to Rubber

Guillain Barre Syndrome: When Legs (and more) Turn to Rubber

Looking on helplessly while a wave of weakness climbs one’s body from the ankles upward can cause dismay. This is what happens in Guillain Barre (pronounced GHEE-on bah-RAY) syndrome, known more formally as acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. Occurring in just one or two people per year in a population of 100,000, Guillain Barre syndrome makes up for its rarity by taking people by surprise and quickly disabling them.

Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy is about as bulky and awkward a name as there is, but the terminology has the endearing feature of encoding the disease’s essential features. Starting from the back end and working forwards, “-pathy” means illness; “neuro” says that the peripheral nerves are involved; “radiculo” means that the spinal nerves emanating from the spinal cord are also affected; “poly” means it’s a widespread process; “demyelinating” means that the nerve-fibers are stripped of their sheath-like myelin coverings; “inflammatory” means a local tissue...