00:00 So let's look at what you'll see in your patients when they're going into automatic dysreflexia. 00:05 They'll have problems with headaches, visual changes. 00:08 They may have some spots in their visual field. 00:10 They'll have a strong nasal congestion, it will be hard for them to breathe. 00:15 Their skin will look blotchy. 00:16 They'll have - be kind of - they'll feel really anxious. 00:19 They're kind of really tired and wiped out. 00:21 Their systolic and diastolic blood pressure are both going to raise. 00:25 Remember since autonomic systems gone awry when trying to fix it, you end up with this weird sweating especially in their face, neck and shoulders up higher. 00:36 Now, they'll have goosebumps below the area of the lesion, so you should see that usually on their lower legs. 00:42 The skin is flushing above the lesion especially in their face, neck, and shoulders. 00:47 Now, let's - this is just a long list of symptoms. 00:51 What I would love for you to do is pause for a minute, take these symptoms and go back through the steps and see how you can really make that stick in your mind. 01:04 Okay. Welcome back. Hopefully it took a little bit of time to line up those symptoms with the steps that you know that occur in autonomic dysreflexia with a spinal cord injury and noxious stimuli, like an overfilled bladder. 01:18 So what do we do when we're treating this? Well, you're gonna monitor that blood pressure very closely. 01:23 You can look to sit the patient up. 01:26 You can assess for signs of autonomic dysreflexia for the cause of it. 01:30 What could this possibly be? And this needs to happen quickly. Is it a wound? Is it a bladder? And usually you'll check the bladder first because that's a very common cause. 01:39 Take anything off that's constricting of the patient. 01:42 You want them to only have loose clothing on. 01:45 When we say go for that bladder first, look for skin breakdown. 01:49 Check for fecal impaction is another possibility. 01:52 So I would go for the most obvious ones first, bladder, skin breakdown, wounds, etc. 01:56 and then consider fecal impaction. 01:59 Because you're gonna wanna treat this with some pretty fast acting hypertensive medications as needed. 02:04 But deal with the underlying cause, the underlying noxious stimuli and also work with your healthcare provider about antihypertensive medications.
The lecture Autonomic Dysreflexia: Symptoms and Treatment (Nursing) by Prof. Lawes is from the course Spinal Cord Injuries and Syndromes (Nursing) .
What is the primary treatment for autonomic dysreflexia?
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