[Myoglobinuric renal failure in hyperosmolar diabetic coma (author's transl)].

Acute rhabdomyolysis with myoglobinuric renal failure occurred in a 66-year-old woman who was in hyperosmolar non-ketotic diabetic coma. No previous description of such a case has been found. The clinical picture was characterized by the typical findings of hyperosmolar coma, in addition to excessive serum creatine kinase and myoglobin levels and massive myoglobinuria with acute renal failure. The rhabdomyolysis became fully manifest only under insulin treatment, possibly the result of insulin-induced hypophosphataemia, which seems to be of importance in the causation of the rhabdomyolysis.