When is facial diplegia regarded as a variant of Guillain‐Barré syndrome?

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>A variant of Guillain‐Barré syndrome (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GBS</jats:styled-content>) with predominant manifestation of facial diplegia (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">FD</jats:styled-content>) has been described recently. This study aimed to characterize and determine the incidence of this <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">FD</jats:styled-content>‐predominant <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GBS</jats:styled-content> variant. The clinical and serological information of 900 consecutive patients were reviewed. In total, eight patients were identified between January 2007 and December 2010 as having <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">FD</jats:styled-content> accompanied by some features of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GBS</jats:styled-content>. These features were subjective sensory symptoms such as distal paresthesia (7/8, 88%), albumin‐cytological (A/C) dissociation (7/8, 88%), antecedent infection (6/8, 75%), and minor nerve conduction study (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NCS</jats:styled-content>) abnormalities (5/7, 71%). One patient presented with the typical <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NCS</jats:styled-content> feature of demyelinating neuropathy. Only two patients exhibited areflexia (2/8, 25%). None of the patients possessed any anti‐ganglioside antibodies; however, the serum of two patients was positive for anti‐mycoplasma antibody (2/6, 33%). <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">FD</jats:styled-content> variant of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GBS</jats:styled-content> occurred in less than 1% of our dataset. <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">FD</jats:styled-content> can be a regional variant of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">GBS</jats:styled-content> when it is accompanied by supporting features, such as subjective tingling, A/C dissociation, and minor <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">NCS</jats:styled-content> abnormalities.</jats:p>