Categories: Health

symptom of muscle damage in adults

The injured muscle cell leaks myoglobin (a protein) into the blood stream. Myoglobin can be directly toxic to kidney cells, and it can impair and clog the filtration system of the kidney. Both mechanisms can lead to kidney failure(the major complication of rhabdomyolysis).

Significant muscle injury can cause fluid and electrolyte shifts from the bloodstream into the damaged muscle cells, and in the other direction (from the damaged muscle cells into the bloodstream). As a result, dehydrationmay occur. Elevated levels of potassium in the bloodstream (hyperkalemia) may be associated with heart rhythm disturbances and sudden cardiac death due to ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.

Complications of rhabdomyolysis also include disseminated intravascular coagulation, a condition that occurs when small blood clots begin forming in the body’s blood vessels. These clots consume all the clotting factors and platelets in the body, and bleeding begins to occur spontaneously.

When muscles are damaged, especially due to a crush injury, swelling within the muscle can occur, causing compartment syndrome. If this occurs in an area where the muscle is bound by fascia (a tough fibrous tissue membrane), the pressure inside the muscle compartment can increase to the point at which blood supply to the muscle is compromised and muscle cells begin to die.

Rhabdomyolysis was first appreciated as a significant complication from crush and blast injuries sustained in a volcano eruption in Italy, in 1908. Victims of the blast injuries during the first and second World Wars help further understand the relationship between massive muscle damage and kidney failure.

Major blunt trauma and crush injury

Electrocution

Lightening strikes

Major burns

Prolonged immobilization (for example, patients who have been lying in one position for a prolonged period of time due to a debilitatingstroke, alcoholordrug overdose, or those who have remained unconscious for a prolonged period of time for other reasons). The weight of the body is enough to crush the muscles that are pushed up against a hard surface such as the floor.

  • Excessive exercise, for example, running a marathon or excessive weight lifting
  • Patients in status epilepticus, in which the seizure lasts for a prolonged period of time and muscles involuntarily contract
  • Dystonic reactions cause muscles to spasm, and if left untreated can damage muscle
  • Cholesterol lowering medications [for example, statins prescribed to treat high cholesterol (particularly when combined with other cholesterol lowering medications such as fibrates)]
  • Antidepressant medications [for example selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) antidepressants may cause a serotoninsyndrome characterized by agitation,fever, and muscle spasm]
  • Some anesthetics can cause malignant hyperthermia syndrome with high fever and muscle rigidity
  • A variety of drugs of abuse [for example, cocaine, heroin, phencyclidine (PCP), and amphetamines]
  • Hyperthermia and hypothermia (high and low body temperature, respectively)
  • Complications from a variety of infections caused by bacteria,viruses, and fungi
  • Association with other diseases such assickle cell disease, polymyositis, and dermatomyositis
  • Complications from the venom from snake bites and black widow spiderbites. 



  • Gajanan Patil

    View Comments

    • There are so many factors why musculature can be damaged. I am sure muscle atrophy can be caused by neurological and musculoskeletal conditions. Your topic is too complex. It can be tackled in parts. The listed symptoms vary from one condition to another.

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