Rhabdomyolysis: Causes and Symptoms

The life threatening syndrome due to a direct or indirect muscle injury is known as rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis results from the death of muscle fibers and release of their contents into the bloodstream. This can lead to serious complications such as renal failure. The kidneys cannot remove waste and concentrated urine in case of renal failure. Rhabdomyolysis can even leads to death in rare cases. However, for a good outcome prompt treatment is required.


Symptoms:

The initial symptoms of rhabdomyolysis include: fatigue, low urine output, muscle weakness, nausea, vomiting, confusion, agitation, infrequent urination and fever.

The complications of rhabdomyolysis include very high levels of potassium in the blood.  That can leads to an irregular heartbeat or cardiac arrest, kidney damage (which occurs in up to half of patients), rarely liver damage. After fluid resuscitation a condition called compartment syndrome may also occur. Due to serious compression of nerves, muscles, and blood vessels can cause tissue damage and problems with blood flow.


Causes of rhabdomyolysis:

Trauma, exertion, and heat: The causes include a crush injury, a heatstroke, blocked blood vessels, a lightning strike, pathological muscle exertion and car accident.

Metabolic and genetic disorders: Rhabdomyolysis can be developed in some people because of genetic conditions such as problems with metabolism of: lipids, or fats, carbohydrates.

Metabolic problems includes: hypothyroidism or low thyroid hormone levels, diabetic ketoacidosis
Genetic disorders include: a carnitine deficiency, a lactate dehydrogenase deficiency, infection and inflammation, duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The infection and inflammation can cause rhabdomyolysis, including: viral infections, bacterial infections, polymyositis, dermatomyositis and snakebites.



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