Crush syndrome overview
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Crush syndrome (also traumatic rhabdomyolysis is a medical condition characterized by major shock and renal failure after a crushing injury to skeletal muscle. Crush injury is compression of extremities or other parts of the body that causes muscle swelling and/or neurological disturbances in the affected areas of the body, while crush syndrome is localized crush injury with systemic manifestations. [1] Cases occur commonly in catastrophes such as earthquakes, to victims that have been trapped under fallen masonry.
Typically affected areas of the body include lower extremities (74%), upper extremities (10%), and trunk (9%). They typically are caused by building collapse from explosives, or earthquake and other natural disasters, or construction accidents. They also can be caused by cave-ins. Explosion-caused crush injury is quaternary blast injury.
Victims of crushing damage present some of the greatest challenges in field medicine, and may be among the few situations where a physician is needed in the field. The most drastic response to crushing under massive objects may be field amputation. Even if it is possible to extricate the patient without amputation, appropriate physiological preparation is mandatory: where permissive hypotension is the standard for prehospital care, fluid loading is the requirement in crush syndrome.