Epidemiological distribution and demographic characteristics of the patients
To date, GBS cases (n = 73) were reported from all continents except Australia. In details, patients were originally from Italy (n = 20), Iran (n = 10), Spain (n = 9), USA (n = 8), United Kingdom (n = 5), France (n = 4), Switzerland (n = 4), Germany (n = 3), Austria (n = 1), Brazil (n = 1), Canada (n = 1), China (n = 1), India (n = 1), Morocco (n = 1), Saudi Arabia (n = 1), Sudan (n = 1), The Netherlands (n = 1), and Turkey (n = 1) (Table 1, Fig. 1). The mean age at onset was 55 ± 17 years (min 11–max 94), including four pediatric cases [21, 27, 35, 41]. A significative prevalence of men compared to women was noticed (50 vs. 23 cases: 68.5% vs. 31.5%) with no significant difference in age at onset between men and women (mean: 55 ± 18 vs. 56 ± 16 years, p = 0.643). Comorbidities were variably reported with no prevalence of a particular disease.
Fig. 1 Temporal and spatial distribution of reported cases with COVID-19-associated Guillain–Barré syndrome in literature from 1st January until 20th July 2020. The x-axis shows the number of described patients. The y-axis illustrates the countries of provenience of the cases. In each line, different colours represent the months of April, May, June, and July (* until 20th July) 2020, in which the cases were published. Abbreviations: UK, United Kingdom, USA, United States of America