anyone with spinal cord injury?

Is there anyone on this forum who has a spinal cord injury? I help care for someone recently diagnosed with dysautonomia who has had a C4/ C5 injury and quadriplegia for 35 years. I'm wondering how common this is with SCI's and why would he develop this complication now ?

[Heiferly]

Hi, welcome to our community.  I don't know if we have any people with SCI currently, but I may be able to answer some of your questions.  Dysautonomia is common in spinal cord injury, moreso in come levels of injury than others.  Of particular concern to patients with SCIs is a particular form of autonomic dysfunction called autonomic dysreflexia or autonomic hyperreflexia which can be very dangerous.  This form of autonomic dysfunction is almost unique to patients with spinal cord injuries.

However, there are other forms of autonomic dysfunction (dysautonomia) attendant to SCI that also are important to consider.  There are some excellent resources online that describe autonomic dysfunction in SCI.  Here's one that I like:

http://www.scireproject.com/rehabilitation-evidence/autonomic-dysreflexia
http://www.scireproject.com/rehabilitation-evidence/orthostatic-hypotension

There are sites that offer support for SCI patients that may also be able to offer information and/or support regarding autonomic dysfunction:

http://spinaltimes.org/index.html
(See under Resources>Preventative Care for links to topics relevant to Dysautonomia, but the whole site is a great resource on SCI in general)


As you can see from the hefty tome on amazon below, there's a lot to be said about the subject (if you use the "look inside" feature, you can browse a bit):

http://www.amazon.com/Autonomic-Dysfunction-Spinal-Progress-Research/dp/0444519254/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0


If you tell me exactly what symptoms or form of autonomic dysfunction that the person for whom you help care is now developing, I can look up more information for you in one of my autonomic medical textbooks.  Without more specific information, I can't give you a more specific response, unfortunately.

Best,
Heiferly.