Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Acute complications of spinal cord injuries
Ellen Merete Hagen, Spinal Cord Injury Centre of Western Denmark, Department of Neurology, Regional Hospital of Viborg, 8800 Viborg, Denmark
Ellen Merete Hagen, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Ellen Merete Hagen, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark
Author contributions: Hagen EM solely contributed to this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Ellen Merete Hagen, Spinal Cord Injury Centre of Western Denmark, Department of Neurology, Regional Hospital of Viborg, Heibergs Alle 4, 8800 Viborg, Denmark. e-mhagen@online.no
Telephone: +45-78-446177 Fax: +45-78-446159
Received: October 24, 2013
Peer-review started: October 25, 2013
First decision: November 12, 2013
Revised: December 24, 2013
Accepted: May 28, 2014
Article in press: May 29, 2014
Published online: January 18, 2015
Peer-review started: October 25, 2013
First decision: November 12, 2013
Revised: December 24, 2013
Accepted: May 28, 2014
Article in press: May 29, 2014
Published online: January 18, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: The paper provides an overview of acute complications of spinal cord injury. Frequent complications in the acute phase of are bradyarrhythmias and hypotension. Other complications are instability of temperature (hypothermia and hyperthermia), pain, spasticity and autonomic dysreflexia (AD). AD is associated with an abrupt, uncontrolled sympathetic response, elicited by stimuli below the level of injury, and it can cause severe hypertension, cerebral haemorrhage and death. All personnel caring for the patient should be able to recognize the symptoms and intervene promptly. Knowledge of possible complications during the acute phase is important because they may be life-threatening and/or may lead to prolonged rehabilitation.