Nephrological and moral aspects of physical torture

Rhabdomyolysis, myoglobinuria and acute renal failure have been known to follow massive crush injury. Although in the past the non-specific clinical syndrome of muscle pain, weakness, and brown urine was called Meyer-Betz syndrome [1], the full-blown clinical pic-ture first came to the attention of the nephrologist from the classic description of the crush syndrome in patients injured during the bombing of London in 1940-1941 [2]. Much of the pathogenesis of rhabdomyolysis has been clarified by careful observations in exertional and metabolic rhabdomyolysis and has been extensively reviewed [3,4]. The early management of the often severe traumatic shock and prophylaxis of acute renal failure in traumatic rhabdomyolysis have recently bee