Paroxysmal Hypertension in Spinal-Cord Injuries

Abstract

THE purpose of this paper is to report on the clinical significance of a little known, but constantly occurring, phenomenon in high spinal-cord lesions. Mass sympathetic discharge, occurring either in conjunction with "mass reflex" or alone in response to various stimuli, has been noted for many years and was first clinically recorded in the classic papers of Head and Riddoch.¹ Since sweating is the most obvious manifestation of this activity, the mass sympathetic discharge has usually been incompletely designated and has received much attention as "spinal reflex sweating."² That the vasomotor component and in particular the severe hypertension may well . . .