Prolonged Coma in Cervical Myelopathy with Dysautonomia

Abstract

The term dysautonomia is used when there is aderangement in the reflex mechanisms of the limbicsystem resulting in improper control of pulse and bloodpressure and even syncope sometimes. Cervicalmyelopathy may be complicated by dysautonomia andmay rarely cause syncope; however, prolonged coma asa result of autonomic dysfunction in traumatic cervicalmyelopathy has not been described in the literature. Wedescribe two patients with cervical myelopathy withdysautonomia who had prolonged coma, one of whomhad to intubated multiple times and kept on ventilatorysupport.

Keywords

• Cervical myelopathy
• Coma
• Detrusor muscle dysfunction
• Dysautonomia
• Syncope