Table 4. Comparison of the incidence rates of GBS in various countries.

Study location	Data source	Diagnostic criteria	Period	Age (yr)	Cases	Incidence per 100,000	Reference
Victoria, Australia	Medical record systems at teaching hospitals	Not reported	1980–1984	≥15	110	0.90	Storey et al.39
Western Australia	Case record search for GBS, polyneuritis, or polyneuropathy codes	Asbury criteria	1980–1985	All	109	1.35	Hankey40
UK	Population-based study using a general-practice research database	Codes for GBS or infective neuritis	1992–2000	All	228	1.33	Hughes et al.41
Southeast England	A voluntary reporting scheme, hospital activity analysis, a contemporary research database, and death certificates	Asbury and Cornblath criteria	1993 & 1994	All	79	1.20	Rees et al.32
Denmark	Danish national patient registry	ICD-8 code for polyradiculitis acuta and ICD-10 code for GBS	1987–2016	≥16	2,319	1.77	Levison et al.42
Germany	Nationwide administrative database from reimbursement scheme implementation	ICD-10 code G61.0	2003–2005	All	4,349	1.60–1.89	Lehmann et al.43
Southwest Greece	Medical records at two referral hospitals	NINCDS	1989–2001	All	105	0.99	Chroni et al.29
USA	Nationwide inpatient sample database	ICD-9-CM code for GBS (357.0)	2000–2004	≥18	4,954	1.65–1.79	Alshekhlee et al.36
USA	Vaccine Safety Datalink	ICD-9 code for GBS (357.0)	2000–2009	All	1,619	1.72	Shui et al.16
Finland	Hospital discharge database	Asbury criteria and Poser criteria	1981–1986	All	247	0.84	Kinnunen et al.44
Finland	Finnish Care Register for Health Care	ICD-10 code G61.0	2004–2014	All	989	1.70	Sipilä et al.45
Italy	Italian network for the study of GBS	Asbury criteria	2010 & 2011	≥18	365	1.84	Benedetti et al.46
Lombardy, Italy	Prospective hospital-based survey, in which patients were interviewed and atypical cases were discussed	NINCDS	1994 & 1995	All	109	0.92	Beghi et al.47
Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta, Italy	Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta Register for Guillain-Barré Syndrome	ICD-9 codes 357.0, 357.8, and 357.9	1995 & 1996	All	120	1.36	Chiò et al.48
Taiwan	National Health Insurance Research Database	ICD-9-CM code for GBS (357.0)	1997–2011	All	5,998	1.52–2.31	Huang et al.18
Jiangsu province, China	Survey	NINCDS	2008–2010	All	441	0.59	Chen et al.5
Western Norway	Hospital records	NINCDS	1957–1982	All	109	1.19	Larsen et al.49
Serbia	Medical records at five tertiary healthcare centers in Serbia	Brighton criteria	2009–2018	≥18	640	1.07	Stojanov et al.38
Spain	Retrospective review of national health service	NINCDS	1985–1997	>19	337	0.86	Cuadrado et al.50
Sweden	Hospital Inpatient Register of the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden	ICD-9 code for GBS (357A)	1978–1993	All	2,257	1.77	Jiang et al.28
Quebec and Ontario, Canada	Hospital discharge databases	ICD-9 codes 357.0, 357.8, 357.9, and 375.0	1983–1989	All	2,333	1.51–1.78	McLean et al.51
Chile	Department of Statistics and Health Information of the Chilean Ministry of Health for all public and private health providers in Chile	ICD-10 code for GBS (G61.0)	2001–2012	All	4,158	1.61–2.35	Rivera-Lillo et al.6
Korea	Medical records at 28 randomly selected hospitals	Brighton criteria	2008–2010	All	245	0.63–0.87	Kim et al.9
Korea	Korean National Health Insurance Service claims data	Hospitalized cases with ICD-10 code for GBS (G61.0)	2014–2016	≥65	320	4.14–4.16	Lee et al.8

GBS, Guillain-Barré syndrome; ICD, International Classification of Diseases; NINCDS, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke Criteria.