You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 14, Issue 1
  • Bilateral vocal cord paralysis in Miller Fisher syndrome/Guillain-Barre overlap syndrome and a review of previous case series

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Case report
Bilateral vocal cord paralysis in Miller Fisher syndrome/Guillain-Barre overlap syndrome and a review of previous case series
  1. Jeeyune Bahk1,
  2. Wanding Yang2 and
  3. Jonathan Fishman3
  1. 1Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, New York City, New York, USA
  2. 2ENT and Head and Neck, University College Hospital, London, UK
  3. 3ENT and Head and Neck, Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jeeyune Bahk; jbahk831{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Miller Fisher syndrome (MFS), an acute demyelinating neuropathy, is characterised by a triad of areflexia, ataxia and ophthalmoplegia. It is the most common variant of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). In about 5.6%–7.1% of MFS cases, patients also suffer from progressive motor weakness of the limbs. This condition is termed MFS/GBS overlap syndrome. Whether it is in MFS or GBS, bilateral vocal cord paralysis (BVCP) is a rare manifestation with limited cases reported in the literature. We report an extremely rare case where a 65-year-old man developed BVCP in an MFS/GBS overlap syndrome. We have also reviewed previous case reports in the literature for comparison.

  • ear, nose and throat/otolaryngology
  • adult intensive care
  • neuro ITU
  • peripheral nerve disease
  • neurology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-240386

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • JB and WY are joint first authors.

    • JB and WY contributed equally.

    • Contributors JB (joint first coauthor)—conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; final approval of the version published; agreement to be accountable for the article, and to ensure that all questions regarding the accuracy or integrity of the article are investigated and resolved. WY (joint first coauthor)—conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; final approval of the version published; agreement to be accountable for the article, and to ensure that all questions regarding the accuracy or integrity of the article are investigated and resolved. JF—conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; final approval of the version published.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.