Journal of Acute Disease (Jan 2018)

Cardiovascular complications associated with spinal cord injury

  • Roberto Fabio Calvo-Infante,
  • Alexis Narvaez-Rojas,
  • Huber Padilla-Zambrano,
  • Samer S Hoz,
  • Amit Agrawal,
  • Luis Rafael Moscote-Salazar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/2221-6189.241006
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 4
pp. 139 – 144

Abstract

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Spinal cord injury can lead to important functional, psychological and social sequelae. Despite the progress in medicine and greater understanding of the pathophysiological events associated with a traumatic spinal cord injury, spinal cord injury is still associated with a high morbidity and mortality. The involvement of the autonomic nervous system has implications in acute and chronic stages of the injured spinal cord patients. The most frequent cardiovascular complications in the acute phase of the traumatic spinal lesions are bradyarrhythmia, hypotension, increased vasovagal reflexes, ventricular and supraventricular ectopic beats, venous stasis, and vasodilation. In the chronic phase, we find orthostatic hypotension, alteration of the arterial pressure and the regulation of the body temperature as well as alteration of the blood volume. The knowledge of the cardiovascular alterations is of vital importance for the management and rehabilitation of the patients with spinal cord injury. In this article, we present a critical review of medical literature.

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