Acute complications of spinal cord injuries
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of acute complications of spinal cord injury (SCI). Along with motor and sensory deficits, instabilities of the cardiovascular, thermoregulatory and broncho-pulmonary system are common after a SCI. Disturbances of the urinary and gastrointestinal systems are typical as well as sexual dysfunction. Frequent complications of cervical and high thoracic SCI are neurogenic shock, bradyarrhythmias, hypotension, ectopic beats, abnormal temperature control and disturbance of sweating, vasodilatation and autonomic dysreflexia. Autonomic dysreflexia is an abrupt, uncontrolled sympathetic response, elicited by stimuli below the level of injury. The symptoms may be mild like skin rash or slight headache, but can cause severe hypertension, cerebral haemorrhage and death. All personnel caring for the patient should be able to recognize the symptoms and be able to intervene promptly. Disturbance of respiratory function are frequent in tetraplegia and a primary cause of both short and long-term morbidity and mortality is pulmonary complications. Due to physical inactivity and altered haemostasis, patients with SCI have a higher risk of venous thromboembolism and pressure ulcers. Spasticity and pain are frequent complications which need to be addressed. The psychological stress associated with SCI may lead to anxiety and depression. Knowledge of possible complications during the acute phase is important because they may be life threatening and/ or may lead to prolonged rehabilitation.
related content
- “Chronic complications of spinal cord injury,” an article in World J Orthop, 2015.
- “Autonomic consequences of spinal cord injury,” an article in Compr Physiol, 2014.
- “Risk factors for organ dysfunction and failure in patients with acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury,” an article in Neurocrit Care, 2010.
These four articles on PainScience.com cite Hagen 2015 as a source:
- PS Anxiety & Chronic Pain — A self-help guide for people who worry and hurt
- PS 25 Surprising Causes of Pain — Trying to understand pain when there is no obvious explanation
- PS Does Spinal Manipulation Work? — Spinal manipulation, adjustment, and popping of the spinal joints and the subluxation theory of disease, back pain and neck pain
- PS Organ Health Does Not Depend on Spinal Nerves! — One of the key selling points for chiropractic care is the anatomically impossible premise that your spinal nerve roots are important to your general health
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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