Dysautonomia after traumatic brain injury: a forgotten syndrome?

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To better establish the clinical features, natural history, clinical management, and rehabilitation implications of dysautonomia after traumatic brain injury, and to highlight difficulties with previous nomenclature. METHODS: Retrospective file review on 35 patients with dysautonomia and 35 sex and Glasgow coma scale score matched controls. Groups were compared on injury details, CT findings, physiological indices, and evidence of infections over the first 28 days after injury, clinical progress, and rehabilitation outcome. RESULTS: the dysautonomia group were significantly worse than the control group on all variables studied except duration of stay in intensive care, the rate o..