Improvements and Residual Limitations Experienced by Patients with Guillain-Barré Syndrome Undergoing Inpatient Rehabilitation.

The purposes of this study were to: 1) describe the level of functional independence of patients with Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) before and after inpatient rehabilitation (IPR), 2) determine whether the level of functional independence increased in each functional domain during IPR, and 3) determine whether independence at the end of IPR differed significantly between domains. Data from patients with GBS discharged from IPR settings in 2019 were obtained from the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation® database. The primary variables analyzed were paired, dichotomous variables of the number of patients who achieved full independence in the admission and discharge scores for the activities that comprise the domains, subscales, and total of the Functional Independence Measure. All patients admitted to IPR required assistance with at least one if not several domains of function, motor as well as cognitive. By the end of the IPR stay, for each domain of function, significantly more patients were independent (p < 0.0001). Independence at the end of IPR differed significantly between domains (p < 0.0001); more patients achieved independence in the communication (87.5%) and social cognition (74.8%) domains while fewer patients achieved independence in the self-care (35.9%), transfers (34.2%), and locomotion domains (24.7%).