Crush Syndrome and Acute Kidney Injury in the Wenchuan Earthquake

Abstract

The Wenchuan Earthquake resulted in calamitous destruction and massive death. We report the characteristics of crush syndrome (CS) and acute kidney injury (AKI) brought by the earthquake, which took place in a mountainous area. We conducted a cross-section survey of total 2,316 consecutive admissions because of seismic trauma, of which 1,827 had complete data available after we excluded those victims with mild injuries. The characteristics of CS and AKI in the mountainous earthquake were analyzed. A total of 149 patients (8.2%) were diagnosed with CS. They had various complications, including different kinds of infection or sepsis, AKI, hematological abnormality, adult respiratory distress syndrome, congestive heart failure, multiple organs dysfunction syndrome, etc. The incidence of hyperkalemia was 15.9% in patients with CS. The hyperkalemia relapsed in five patients after hemodialysis in the first 3 days. AKI occurred in 62 patients (41.6% of CS patients) with CS and 33 of them received renal replacement therapy. In our hospital, 5 of them died. The overall mortality rate was 1.0% and mortality of patients with CS was 6.7%. Twelve patients (50%) died in the first 3 days. Although the mountains hampered rescue actions, causing more loss of life, CS and AKI were still common and life-threatening events in the Wenchuan Earthquake. Most patients with CS and/or AKI had severe complications, especially hyperkalemia.