Diabetes insipidus in cervico-dorsal spinal cord injury

Three cases of acute spinal cord trauma developing transient diabetes insipidus are described. The level of spinal injury was cervical in one, cervicodorsal in second, and upper dorsal in the third. Two patients sustained transaction at cervical and dorsal spinal cord while the third had diffuse cordedema and partial neurological injury. In all the cases the onset of diabetes insidious was noted after 3-6 weeks following trauma and it subsided requiring no active treatment. No relevant craniocerebral injury was noted clinically or radiologically. A central medullary descending vasopressin mediated pathway, demonstrated only in experimental animals, may be involved in the spinal cord injury producing diabetes insipidus.