Plasma exchange in Guillain‐Barré syndrome: One‐year follow‐up

Abstract We report the one‐year assessment of plasma exchange (PE) versus control in Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS), based on a randomized multicenter clinical trial of 220 patients with GBS. Treated patients received four PEs, with either albumin or fresh frozen plasma (FFP) as replacement fluid. This study completes the short‐term analysis previously published (Ann Neurol 1987;22:753–761). Long‐term benefit from PE was observed, as demonstrated by full muscular strength recovery at one year: 71% in the PE group versus 52% in the control group ( p = 0.007), confirmed after adjustment for four prognostic factors. FFP showed no additional benefit compared with albumin (77% full recovery in the FFP group versus 65% in the albumin group; p = 0.22). PE did not affect the incidence of severe motor disability (11% in both groups).