Abstract

Rhabdomyolysis is one of the principal causes of acute kidney disease. Multiple endogenous and exogenous causes could start this process: cocaine addiction, a social phenomenon present in our Country among young adults, is one exogenous causes. Natural stimulating alkaloid cocaine has toxic action on multiple systems, principally central nervous system and cardiovascular system. Etiopathogenesis is related either to changes in local and systemic hemodynamics, or to direct damage caused by myofibril accumulation, or to immunological events leading to vasculitis or thrombotic microangiopathies. Scientific evidences describe different therapeutic approaches: supportive therapy, extracorporeal treatments and possible removal of the pathogenic noxa, and the therapeutic apheresis plays a role yet to be confirmed in this field.

We describe the case of a 52-year-old man, hospitalized in the Cardiological Intensive Care Unit of our hospital, due to serious alterations in the indices of myocardiocytonecrosis and liver function, following cocaine abuse. During hospitalization, renal function indices worsened associated to diuresis contraction and onset of metabolic acidosis, not responsive to medical therapy. Also in consideration of myoglobin high circulating levels, related to rhabdomyolysis, the patient went under a cycle of selective apheresis using adsorption with a TR350 cartridge associated to hemodialysis: after two adsorption sessions, the patient resumed spontaneous diuresis with progressive normalization of the blood indices.

Keywords: Cocaine, Rhabdomyolysis, Apheresis, Adsorption