-
- Kamna S Balhara, Bridget Highet, and Rodney Omron.
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
- J Emerg Med. 2015 Apr 1;48(4):e97-9.
BackgroundRhabdomyolysis, usually in the setting of trauma or drug use, is frequently seen in the emergency setting, and often leads to hyperkalemia at presentation. Hypokalemia, however, is a potentially underrecognized cause of rhabdomyolysis.Case ReportWe present a case of rhabdomyolysis likely due to hypokalemia in the setting of short bowel syndrome. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Although less common, hypokalemia can be a significant cause of rhabdomyolysis via its effects on muscle. This scenario should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients at risk for hypokalemia who present with weakness. Rapid recognition of this relationship and rapid correction of hypokalemia may prove very important in preventing the deleterious effects of rhabdomyolysis.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..