An increase in the number of admitted patients with exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis

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.

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.

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.

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.