Questions posted in the Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Question Title: Autonomic neuropathy...please explain

Forum: Neurology Forum
Topic: Autonomic


Hi Doctor,
Could you please give me a little info on Autonomic Neuropathy? What exactly is this, what is the casue, symptoms, treatments, and prognosis. Also can this be the cause of a neurogenic bladder?

Thank You


=
The autonomic nervous system is the branch of the nervous system which
takes care of the AUTOMATIC activities of the body, ie the one which are
fully of partly outside our voluntary control but are still controlled by
nerves.
These include digestion of food, bladder and sexual function,blood perssure
control (especially responses to changes in posture), sweating, eye
focussing. An outonomic neuropathy is a dysfunction of these nerves which
can be caused by a wide range of problems diabetes being one of the most
common.
The prognosis is dependent on identifying and treating the underlying
cause, if this is possible the opoutcome is good, otherwise steps ned to
be taken to compensate for problems in the specific areas affected, for
example support stockings to maintain blood pressure if this is the specific problem.




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