Bradycardia is common in traumatic quadriplegia and associated with high mortality, but is typically self-limited within 3-5 weeks and does not require permanent pacemaker therapy.
Bradycardia in cervical SCI warrants acute monitoring; leaves open whether interventions beyond supportive care reduce mortality.
Twenty-two of 83 consecutive patients with traumatic quadraplegia admitted to a regional spinal injury center had significant bradycardia. These bradycardic patients accounted for 66% of the cervical spinal cord injured patients' mortality. In general, bradycardia in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries appears to be due to unopposed vagal tone. This bradycardia is self-limited within 3-5 weeks after the onset of paraplegia and does not require permanent pacemaker therapy.
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Winslow et al. (1986) studied this question.
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