Rhabdomyolysis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rhabdomyolysis |
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| Symptoms | Muscle pains, weakness, vomiting, confusion, tea-colored urine, irregular heartbeat |
| Complications | Kidney failure, high blood potassium, low blood calcium, disseminated intravascular coagulation, compartment syndrome |
| Causes | Crush injury, strenuous exercise, medications, drug abuse, certain infections |
| Diagnostic method | Blood test (creatine kinase), urine test strip |
| Treatment | Intravenous fluids, dialysis, hemofiltration |
| Frequency | 26,000 per year (USA) |
Rhabdomyolysis is where damaged skeletal muscles quickly break down.. The symptoms can be muscle pains, weakness, vomiting, and confusion. There can also be confusion and tea-colored urine. Rhabdomyolysis can also injure the kidneys with myoglobin.
The most common causes of Rhabdomyolysis are crush injury, strenuous exercise, medications, or drug abuse.
During rhabdomyolysis, a protein that stores oxygen in the muscles called myoglobin is released into the blood. The kidneys filter the blood and remove the myoglobin. However, the myoglobin breaks down into other chemicals which damages the kidneys which can cause severe injury or even death.
Images for kids
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The M-subunit of creatine kinase. In skeletal muscle, creatine kinase exists predominantly in dimers containing two M-subunits, also referred to as "CK-MM".
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A hemofiltration machine
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Schematic diagram of myoglobin, a heme-containing protein that participates in oxygen storage in normal muscle but is responsible for kidney damage in rhabdomyolysis
