Data from: Surgery and risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome: a French nationwide epidemiologic study

Objectives: To assess the association between Guillain-Barre syndrome
(GBS) and recent surgery based on French nationwide data. Methods: Data
were extracted from the French health administrative databases (SNIIRAM /
PMSI). All patients hospitalized for GBS between 2009 and 2014 were
identified by ICD-10 code G61.0 as main diagnosis. Patients previously
hospitalized for GBS in 2006, 2007 and 2008 were excluded. Surgical
procedures were identified from the hospital database. Hospitalizations
for surgery with no infection diagnosis code entered while the hospital
stay were also identified. The association between GBS and a recent
surgical procedure was estimated using a case-crossover design. Case and
referent windows were defined as 1–60 days and 366–425 days before GBS
hospitalization, respectively. Analyses were adjusted for previous
episodes of gastroenteritis and respiratory tract infection, identified by
drug dispensing data. Results: Out of the 8,364 GBS cases included, 175
and 257 patients had undergone a surgical procedure in the referent and
case windows, respectively (adjusted odds ratio (OR) =1.54, 95% confidence
interval (CI): 1.26, 1.88). A slightly weaker association was observed for
surgical procedures with no identified infection during the
hospitalization (OR=1.40, 95%CI: 1.12, 1.73). In terms of the type of
surgery, only surgical procedures on bones and digestive organs were
significantly associated with GBS (OR and 95%CI=2.81 (1.70, 4.65) and 2.37
(1.32, 4.23), respectively). Conclusion: In this large nationwide
epidemiological study, GBS was moderately associated with any type of
recent surgery, and was more strongly associated with bone and digestive
organ surgery.