From a fish tank injury to hospital haemodialysis: the serious consequences of statin drug interactions

This paper was published in BMJ Case Reports 2015 Jun 23;2015

 

Study title and authors:

From a fish tank injury to hospital haemodialysis: the serious consequences of drug interactions.

Hill FJ, McCloskey SJ, Sheerin N.

Renal Department, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

 

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26106178

This paper describes the case of a man who suffered acute kidney injury following statin-induced rhabdomyolysis.

(i) A 68-year-old man was admitted to hospital with severe acute kidney injury secondary to statin-induced rhabdomyolysis.
(ii) Five weeks previously, the patient started a course of clarithromycin for infection of a finger wound. His current medications included simvastatin, which he continued along with clarithromycin.
(iii) The severity of the acute kidney injury necessitated initial continuous venovenous haemofiltration followed by 12 haemodialysis sessions before a spontaneous improvement in renal function occurred.

Hill concluded: "Statins are widely prescribed and we report this case to encourage increased vigilance in avoiding drug interactions known to increase the risk of statin-induced myopathy, including macrolide antibiotics, calcium channel antagonists and amiodarone".