An unusual cause of rhabdomyolysis in emergency setting: challenges of diagnosis.

Rhabdomyolysis is a rare phenomenon that may be challenging to recognize in an emergency setting. Drugs are one of the common causes. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole is a commonly used antibiotic effective in the treatment of upper and lower respiratory tract infections as well as renal, urinary, and gastrointestinal tract infections. It has variable side effects, ranging from mild symptoms of fatigue and insomnia to a potentially life-threatening Steven-Johnson syndrome and renal failure. Rhabdomyolysis is a rare complication of therapy with this drug and is commonly seen in immunocompromised patients or those with an allogenic stem cell transplant. In this article, we report a case of rhabdomyolysis in an immunocompetent patient who has undergone treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and a possible drug interaction with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, with the latter acting as an aggravating factor of this complication.