Rhabdomyolysis - Go big or go home

Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of Rhabdomyolysis: A Retrospective Study

Background

Rhabdomyolysis (RM) refers to a clinical syndrome in which muscle cells are damaged by various causes and the clinical manifestations are mainly muscle pain, weakness, and dark urine. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication of RM with complex mechanisms and high mortality. Therefore, understanding the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations, early diagnosis and treatment of RM are crucial to improve its prognosis.

Method

Analysis of medical records of RM patients admitted to Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from October 2019 to October 2022. Statistical software SPSS 25.0 was used to analyze the data. The risk factors of RM-complicated AKI were analyzed by logistic regression. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted, the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated, and the optimal cutoff value was determined by the Youden index. P < 0.05 indicates a statistically significant difference between the groups.

Result

Among the 71 patients, the median age of the patients was 53.0 (30.0, 71.0) years and was 2.5 times higher in men than in women. Infection was the most common etiology. History of alcohol consumption, CK, and creatinine were independent influencing factors for AKI due to RM. Logistic regression analysis showed that CK combined with creatinine had a better predictive value than the single index.

Conclusion

Our study revealed the clinical and laboratory characteristics of RM in the population attending the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in the last three years, which is a reference for future multicenter, prospective studies.

Management of rhabdomyolysis: A practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma

BACKGROUND

The treatment of rhabdomyolysis remains controversial. Although there is no question that any associated compartment syndrome needs to be identified and released, debate persists regarding the benefit of further therapy including aggressive intravenous fluid resuscitation (IVFR), urine alkalization with bicarbonate, and the use of mannitol. The goal of this practice management guideline was to evaluate the effects of bicarbonate, mannitol, and aggressive intravenous fluids on patients with rhabdomyolysis.

METHODS

A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing treatments in patients with rhabdomyolysis was performed. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology was applied to assess the quality of evidence and to create evidence-based recommendations regarding the use of bicarbonate, mannitol, and aggressive IVFR in patients with rhabdomyolysis.

RESULTS

A total of 12 studies were identified for analysis. On quantitative analysis, IVFR decreased the incidence of acute renal failure (ARF) and need for dialysis in patients with rhabdomyolysis. Neither bicarbonate nor mannitol administration improved the incidence of acute renal failure and need for dialysis in patients with rhabdomyolysis. Quality of evidence was deemed to be very low, with the vast majority of the literature being retrospective studies.

CONCLUSION

In patients with rhabdomyolysis, we conditionally recommend for aggressive IVFR to improve outcomes of ARF and lessen the need for dialysis. We conditionally recommend against treatment with bicarbonate or mannitol in patients with rhabdomyolysis.