Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about Rabdomyelysis. If you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero definals.com slash rabdomyelysis or in the renal section of the

zero to finals medicine book. So let's get straight into it. Rabdomyelysis or in the renal section of the zero de finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Rabdomyelis is a condition where the skeletal muscle tissue breaks down and releases breakdown

products into the blood.

And this is usually triggered by an event that causes the muscle to break down, such as extreme underuse

or extreme overuse or a traumatic injury to the muscle. The muscle cells, which are called

myocytes, undergo cell death, which is called apoptosis. And the cell death results in the muscle

cells releasing several chemicals, which include myoglobin, and the cell death results in the muscle cells releasing several chemicals which include myoglobin

and this myoglobin causes myoglobin urien which is myoglobin in the urine. They also release

potassium, bosphate and creatine kinase. Potassium is the most immediately dangerous breakdown product because hyperclemia or a high potassium

level in the blood can cause cardiac arrhythmias that potentially can result in cardiac arrest.

These breakdown products are filtered by the kidney and cause injury to the kidney.

Myoglobin in particular is toxic to the kidney in high concentrations and this results in an acute kidney injury caused by the rhabdomyelysis.

The acute kidney injury results in the breakdown products accumulating further in the blood

so it worsens the situation, because all of these breakdown

products that are being released by the muscle cells aren't able to exit the body in any way.

So what are the causes? Anything that causes significant damage to muscle cells can cause

rhabdomyelitis. A common one that you'll come across is prolonged immobility, particularly frail,

older patients that have fallen and spent a long time on the floor before they've been found.

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