Guillain-Barre syndrome following COVID-19 vaccination: a case report and an updated review.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has caused a pandemic that has recently affected every aspect of life. Fortunately, many vaccines with high safety and efficacy profiles were developed timely to face this pandemic. In a very short time, billions of people were vaccinated. In the meantime, a wide range of neurological syndromes are being reported. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) which is a rare immune-mediated post-infectious peripheral neuropathy was reported after both the COVID-19 infection itself and many types of its vaccines. METHODS: We are reporting a case of post-AstraZeneca vaccine GBS and reviewing the literature of all reported post-COVID-19 vaccines GBS till July 2021. RESULTS: 29 adult patients were reported. Of them 58.6% were males. Their mean age is 58.2 years. The median time to clinical onset after vaccine administration was 13.2 days. 86.2% of patients had their symptoms following immunization with the 1(st) dose of AstraZeneca vector-based covid vaccine. Facial palsy was the most predominant single symptom in 75.8% of patients. CONCLUSION: Guillain-Barré syndrome is a well-recognized but still rare adverse event following vaccination against COVID-19. Although preliminary data incriminates viral vector-based vaccines more than the other types, active post-vaccination surveillance and more powerful statistics are mandatory to reach a solid conclusion regarding the presence of a causal relation.