ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Rhabdomyolysis may lead to serious complications, and treatment is both time-consuming and costly. The condition can be caused by many factors, including intense exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the number of hospitalisations due to exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis has changed in recent years. We describe the disease course in hospitalised patients, and compare disease course in individuals with exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis and rhabdomyolysis due to other causes. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study is a systematic review of medical records from Akershus University Hospital for the years 2008 and 2011 14. All hospitalised patients with diagnostic codes M62.8, M62.9 and T79.6 and creatine kinase levels > 5 000 IU/l were included. The cause of the rhabdomyolysis was recorded in addition to patient characteristics and the results of various laboratory tests. RESULTS: Of 161 patients who were hospitalised with rhabdomyolysis during the study period, 44 cases (27 %) were classified as exercise-induced. In 2008 there were no admissions due to exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis; in 2011 and 2012 there were six and four admissions respectively, while in 2014 there were 22. This gives an estimated incidence of 0.8/100 000 in 2012 and 4.6/100 000 in 2014. Strength-training was the cause of hospitalisation in 35 patients (80 % of the exercise-induced cases). Three patients (7 % of the exercise-induced cases) had transient stage 1 kidney injury, but there were no cases with stage 2 or stage 3 injury. By comparison, 52 % of patients with rhabdomyolysis due to another cause had kidney injury, of which 28 % was stage 2 or 3. INTERPRETATION: The number of persons hospitalised with exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis has increased four-fold from 2011 to 2014, possibly due to changes in exercise habits in the population. None of the patients with exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis had serological signs of kidney injury upon hospital discharge.
