ReviewVaccines2020
Is an Increased Risk of Developing Guillain-Barré Syndrome Associated with Seasonal Influenza Vaccination? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Vaccines, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of influenza vaccination on neurodegenerative and demyelinating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Guillain-Barré syndrome in association with COVID-19 vaccination: a systematic review.Immunologic research · 2022Pooled it
- Temporal and disproportionality analysis of vaccine-associated Guillain-Barré syndrome: a 21-year VAERS study.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Article
- Observational
- Pharmacovigilance-based 12-year post-marketing safety analysis of quadrivalent influenza vaccines in children: a VAERS surveillance study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Article
- Adverse Events Following Immunization- The Known Unknowns and Black Box : Based on 10th Dr. I. C. Verma Excellence Award for Young Pediatricians Delivered as Oration on 9th Oct. 2022.Indian journal of pediatrics · 2023Review
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccines and neurological diseases: Cause or coincidence?European journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Interpretation of vaccine associated neurological adverse events: a methodological and historical review.Journal of neurology · 2022Review
- Patients' attitude towards vaccination after Guillain Barré syndrome.Health science reports · 2021Article
- Review
- Safety, Immunogenicity, Efficacy and Effectiveness of Inactivated Influenza Vaccines in Healthy Pregnant Women and Children Under 5 Years: An Evidence-Based Clinical Review.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- Review
- Provisional case definitions for COVID-19-associated neurological disease.The Lancet. Neurology · 2020Article
- Review
- COVID-19-Associated Bifacial Weakness with Paresthesia Subtype of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
While the weight of epidemiological evidence does not support a causal link with influenza vaccination evaluated over the last 30 years, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has been considered a vaccine-associated adverse event of interest since 1976. To investigate the existence of GBS risk after vaccination against seasonal influenza, a systematic review and meta-analysis have been conducted based on 22 eligible epidemiological studies from 1981 to 2019 reporting 26 effect sizes (ESs) in different influenza seasons. The primary result of our meta-analysis pointed to no risk of vaccine-associated GBS, as documented by a pooled ES of 1.15 (95% CI: 0.97-1.35). Conversely, an obvious high risk of GBS was observed in patients with previous influenza-like illness (ILI), as demonstrated by a pooled ES of 9.6 (95% CI: 4.0-23.0) resulting from a supplementary analysis. While the meta-analysis did not confirm the putative risk of vaccine-associated GBS suggested by many epidemiological studies, vaccination against seasonal influenza reduced the risk of developing ILI-associated GBS by about 88%. However, to obtain strong evidence, more epidemiological studies are warranted to establish a possible coincidence between vaccination and ILI prior to GBS onset.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.