When monitoring a patient with potential spinal injury, which of the following would you expect?

In the context of monitoring a patient with a potential spinal injury, bradycardia is a well-documented physiological response due to disruptions in the autonomic nervous system, particularly when the injury occurs at the cervical spinal levels. When the sympathetic nervous system is compromised, as it can be with spinal cord injuries, there is a reduction in heart rate because the normal adrenaline-driven response is impaired.

Bradycardia may result from vagal stimulation or decreased sympathetic output, leading to a lower heart rate than normal. In many cases, patients with spinal cord injuries, especially at higher cervical levels, might exhibit slower heart rates, demonstrating the injury's impact on the body's ability to regulate cardiovascular function.

In contrast, hypertension is not typically associated with acute spinal cord injury; rather, it can occur in chronic scenarios such as autonomic dysreflexia, which is more common in incomplete spinal injuries. High temperature is not a common symptom immediately following a spinal injury, and instead, the patient may develop hypothermia due to loss of thermoregulatory control. Increased muscle tone would usually indicate spasticity or other neurological responses rather than being a direct consequence of a spinal injury.

Thus, bradycardia is the expected finding in a patient with