Spinal Trauma

[Wizard67]

Does the Priapism that can occur with a spinal cord injury resolve itself spontaneously?

[emschick78]

Others can correct me if I'm wrong... but I believe a priapism is said to be very painful. They do not spontaneously resolve on there own. At the very least meds are given to resolve it... if it's a more serious then aspiration is done. Either way I believe a Dr is involved.

[AZCEP]

A little time with Google will give you the mechanisms that cause the problem in the first place.

Resulting from spinal trauma, priapism is a loss of vasomotor control below the injury. Because the vessels will relax, rather than spasm, the resulting situation does not easily resolve. Given enough time, it will, but this is on the order of hours to days post injury.

The sensation of pain is also dependent on the degree of damage to the spinal cord. The sensory connections can become damaged as well, but they are more centrally located than the motor controls.

[emt-b_wa]

I have seen a few priapisms and none have eveway ever gone away. One of them was so bad that it had become black and blue. I didnt know that was posible with a priapism.

[spenac]

I encourage you to do a study of shock. Get into it deeply, look at the different types of shock. That should help you answer your on question. Besides understanding shock forward, backwards, upsidedown, etc will make you a better medic as shock in one form or another is really where we can make the biggest difference in patient outcome.

[Wizard67]

I want to thank everyone who replied to my post. Really appreciated the feedback. This question actually came up during an ems meeting with our paramedic captain. She told our department responders that a priapism "goes down within a few minutes on its own." I didn't that sounded right as the definition of a priapism alone did not agree with the information she gave.

[AZCEP]

Maybe she was thinking of other causes not related to spinal trauma. :shock: :wink:

[Laura Anne]

....oh my! So, uhhhh, exactly how many times has been in 'contact' with a patient who had a priapism that lasted a few minutes? I think she may need to look over the mechanism(s) of A&P involved with priapism as well as touch up on her assessment skills....no pun intended. :shock: :wink:

[AZCEP]

Maybe her, ahem, "assessment skills" were what caused the priapism to abate in the first place.

:shock: :shock: :shock:

[EMSm0nster]

Please find out what she was talking about. Otherwise I believe she is incorrect.