Efficacy of therapies in the treatment of Guillain-Barre Syndrome: a network meta-analysis

Abstract Background Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an acute, paralyzing, inflammatory peripheral nerve disease. For treatments of the Guillain-Barre Syndrome, there are many kinds of therapies for this diseases. For comparing all of the therapies, such as immunoglobulin, plasma exchanging, etc. in the treatment of Guillain-Barre Syndrome(GBS) to better inform clinical practice, we use Network meta analysis to get the outcome of the Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The protocol has been submitted to PROSPERO:CRD: 42019119178. Methods Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library were searched for related articles. We identified citations of these and included 26 trials comprising 2434 patients and control group human beings. Network meta-analysis (NMA) was performed with two kinds of outcomes. We carried on R software with gemtc package and JAGS software to calculate results for different therapies. The consistency of direct and indirect evidence was also assessed by R software. Results Concerning for two outcomes, there were no improvement observed in MTP and Pred compared with placebo. PE and IVIg were illustrated to be effective over Placebo. There was no significant difference between different doses and times of PE and IVIg. On consistency examination between direct and indirect evidences, there were no obvious heterogeneity between all of therapies. Funnel plots indicates the possibility of publication bias in this study are small. Conclusion PE or IVIg had a significant efficency for GBS patients. The effects of some combination treatments should be further explored. Corticosteroids had no significant effects on GBS.