Rhabdomyolysis in patients with COVID-19: A cause or consequence of acute kidney injury or mortality?

Rhabdomyolysis can occur due to many traumatic and nontraumatic causes. Rhabdomyolysis has been reported in new type of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases. The aim of our study was to examine the effects of rhabdomyolysis on mortality and renal outcomes in patients hospitalized in our hospital's COVID-19 wards. In our single-center and retrospective study, we included patients who were admitted with a diagnosis of COVID-19 by a thorax-computed tomography finding who were older than 18 years of age and with a measured creatinine kinase (CK) > 1000 U/L on any day of hospitalization. The same number of patients hospitalized in COVID-19 services with CK < 1000 U/L and with similar gender and age were determined as the control group. We analyzed the data of 2065 patients, and compared 154 patients in the rhabdomyolysis group (group 1) and 154 patients in the control group (group 2). Acute kidney injury (AKI) (44.2% vs 21.4%; P < .001), intensive care unit (ICU) admissions (53.2% vs 13.6%; P < .001), intubation (75.6% vs 23.8%; P < .001), mortality (36.4% vs 3.2%; P < .001) and the need for dialysis (3.9% vs 0.6%; P = .005) were seen more in the rhabdomyolysis group. When that group was divided into the early rhabdomyolysis group (group 1a), where the CK value reached its highest value in ≤3 days, and the late rhabdomyolysis group (group 1b), where it was ≥ 4 days, AKI (29.7% vs 65.1%; P < .001), ICU (35.2% vs 79.4%; P < .001), intubation (56.2% vs 88%; P = .001), mortality (18% vs 61.9%; P < .001), and dialysis (1.1% vs 7.9%; P = .031), the results were higher in the group 1b. The available data suggest that rhabdomyolysis seen in COVID-19 patients is not a direct predictor of mortality and poor renal outcomes, but is a secondary outcome to multiple-organ failure caused by worsening clinical status.