Autonomic Dysreflexia

I had a clinical rotation in spinal cord injury. I've seen it happen. One of my patients had an episode that was brought on by a dehydrated pea under his lower buttocks. Yes, it is true. His BP shot up, he had a sweaty midsection....it was pretty scary, and it is a life threatning emergency. Also, one can trigger it when changing a foley's. It is important for para's and quads to cath often as the main culprit is usually a distended bladder. I'ts been awhile...so I need to refresh my memory more on this fascinating occurence.

Here's a link from the *Spinal Cord Injury Info Network* on autonomic dysreflexia »

http://www.spinalcord.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=21542

Article includes references for further reading.

Thank you.

Your welcome - glad the info was helpful.

- robsta

I was off but one of my pts had their foley clamped for UA, and they never unclamped it. Dont think they will ever forget to do that again. And it HAD to happen to THAT pt you dont want it to happen to.