| Crush injury | |
|---|---|
| Specialty | Emergency medicine |
A crush injury is injury by an object that causes compression of the body. This form of injury is rare in normal civilian practice, but common following a natural disaster. Other causes include industrial accidents, road traffic collisions, building collapse, accidents involving heavy plant, disaster relief or terrorist incidents.
Crush syndrome is a systemic result of skeletal muscle injury and breakdown and subsequent release of cell contents. The severity of crush syndrome is dependent on the duration and magnitude of the crush injury as well as the bulk of muscle affected. It can result from both short-duration, high-magnitude injuries (such as being crushed by a building) or from low-magnitude, long-duration injuries such as coma or drug-induced immobility.
Early fluid resuscitation reduces the risk of kidney failure, reduces the severity of hyperkalaemia and may improve outcomes in isolated crush injury.
For casualties with isolated crush injury who are haemodynamically stable, large-volume crystalloid fluid resuscitation reduces the severity of and reduces the risk of acute kidney injury.