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Abstract
A 49-year-old consultant medical oncologist, with a medical history of complete T5 spinal cord injury (March 1992) and long-term paralysis from the chest down, presented with shingles affecting the T7 dermatome. He also had a dull frontal headache, a feeling of agitation and increased blood pressure of 135/90 on a home blood pressure machine (higher than his usual blood pressure of 90/70). Having been taught about autonomic dysreflexia at the time of his initial spinal cord injury, he self-diagnosed autonomic dysreflexia caused by the noxious stimulus of shingles below his level of spinal cord injury. He self-administered a nifedipine 5 mg sublingual capsule to decrease his blood pressure before urgently seeing his general practitioner. Treatment of the shingles with acyclovir and analgesia successfully managed the problem and avoided hospital admission. This case highlights key aspects in treating autonomic dysreflexia and the value of doctor–patient partnership in doing so.
- prehospital
- medical management
- headache (including migraines)
- hypertension
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Footnotes
Contributors TW is the sole author of this article. He wrote the case report, having gathered clinical information included in the case report and having reviewed the literature on the topic of autonomic dysreflexia.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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