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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Asian J Neurosurg 2022; 17(02): 165-172
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1751080
Review Article

Autonomic Dysreflexia following Spinal Cord Injury

Vladimír Balik
1   Department of Neurosurgery, Svet Zdravia Hospital, Michalovce, Slovakia
,
Igor Šulla
2   Department of Anatomy, University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Histology and Physiology, Košice, Slovakia
› Author Affiliations Funding This study was supported by the Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for the Structural Funds of EU, ITMS 26220220202.
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Abstract

Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is a potentially life-threatening condition of the autonomic nervous system following spinal cord injury at or above T6. One of the most common symptoms is a sudden increase in blood pressure induced by afferent sensory stimulation owing to unmodulated reflex sympathetic hyperactivity. Such episodes of high blood pressure might be associated with a high risk of cerebral or retinal hemorrhage, seizures, heart failure, or pulmonary edema. In-depth knowledge is, therefore, crucial for the proper management of the AD, especially for spine surgeons, who encounter these patients quite often in their clinical practice. Systematical review of the literature dealing with strategies to prevent and manage this challenging condition was done by two independent reviewers. Studies that failed to assess primary (prevention, treatment strategies and management) and secondary outcomes (clinical symptomatology, presentation) were excluded. A bibliographical search revealed 85 eligible studies that provide a variety of preventive and treatment measures for the subjects affected by AD. As these measures are predominantly based on noncontrolled trials, long-term prospectively controlled multicenter studies are warranted to validate these preventive and therapeutic proposals.

Keywords

autonomic dysreflexia - autonomic hyperreflexia - autonomic nervous system - spinal cord injury


Publication History

Article published online:
25 August 2022

© 2022. Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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