BY

A case of myoglobinuria with acute renal failure in a 29-year-old male is presented. The attack followed a minor operation under general anaesthesia during which suxame-thonium was administered as muscle relaxant. Immediately after the injection of suxamethonium vigorous generalized fasciculations occurred which very likely proved to be the precipitating factor for the episode of rhabdomyolysis. It is concluded that the use of depolarizing agents in patients with myoglobinuria is hazardous and should be avoided. Since its first description by Meyer-Betz in 1910 idiopathic myoglobinuria or idiopathic recurrent rhabdomyolysis has been reported in about seventy cases. Although its characteristic present-ing features—a syndrome of muscle pains and red, benzidine (or guaiacum) positive urine in the absence of intravascular haemolysis and with a normal urinary sediment—ought to make it an easily recognizable condition, it has sometimes been misinterpreted. This may lead to many unnecessary investigations and put patients to considerable discomfort, for instance because of repeated cystoscopies on account of presumed haemoglobinuria (Bradley, 1963). There may be a prolonged hospital stay for "glomerulo