neurologic disorders
Spinal Cord Autonomic Dysreflexia
Introduction
Autonomic dysreflexia is a disorder of autonomic nervous system dysregulation that occurs in patients with a spinal cord injury and that can result in life-threatening hypertension. It occurs in 20% to 70% of patients, 1 month to 1 year after spinal cord injury. Cord injury is usually above the T6 level, with dysreflexia unlikely to occur after an injury below the T10 level. Life-threatening hypertension is provoked by a noxious stimulus below the level of spinal cord injury; in about 85% of patients, the stimulus is a urologic disorder, such as bladder distention or urinary tract infection. In up to 85% of cases, the cause is bladder distension, often due to a blocked bladder catheter. Bowel distension and fecal impaction are the second most common precipitants; they account for 13 to 19% of cases. 