Unrecognised autonomic dysreflexia in neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction with spinal cord injury as a reason for admission to a cardiac surgical unit

BACKGROUND: In Russia, spinal cord injury occurs in 0.7–6.8% of total injuries. Due to emergence of new rehabilitation protocols, it is extremely important to know the time of occurrence of consequences of spinal cord injury and adequate diagnosis of complications, which allows timely identification of life-threatening conditions of one of the body systems.

Clinical case description. We present a clinical case of autonomic dysreflexia in neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction after traumatic cervical spinal cord injury in a 17-year-old girl. In traumatic spinal cord injury above the level of the sixth thoracic vertebra, autonomic dysreflexia as a variant of autonomic dysfunction is a common complication. This clinical case will be of interest to clinicians of all specialties who encounter patients with spinal cord injury. It is shown that misinterpreted symptoms of increased blood pressure during bladder filling were the cause of observation and treatment by a cardiologist for arterial hypertension, as well as hospitalization in the cardiac surgery department for planned surgical treatment of renal artery stenosis, which was thought to be the cause of the episodic increases in blood pressure. Lack of knowledge about the presence of autonomic dysfunction in spinal cord injury patients may have led to unnecessary surgical treatment. During the joint management of the patient with a pediatric cardiac surgeon, signs of autonomic dysreflexia were detected against the background of traumatic spinal cord disease at the level of the cervical spine, hypotensive treatment and planned surgical intervention were canceled.

Conclusion. Subsequently, an adequate regimen of periodic bladder catheterization and antimuscarinic drug therapy was prescribed, which successfully reduced the dysreflexia.