Prolonged Coma in Cervical Myelopathy with Dysautonomia

The term dysautonomia is used when there is a derangement in the reflex mechanisms of the limbic system resulting in improper control of pulse and blood pressure and even syncope sometimes. Cervical myelopathy may be complicated by dysautonomia and may rarely cause syncope; however, prolonged coma as a result of autonomic dysfunction in traumatic cervical myelopathy has not been described in the literature. We describe two patients with cervical myelopathy with dysautonomia who had prolonged coma, one of whom had to intubated multiple times and kept on ventilatory support.