Crush Syndrome Cases Following Spontaneous Collapse of Zümrüt Apartment

When Zümrüt apartment in Konya collapsed spontaneously on monday 02.02.2004, 92 of total 121 people in the apartment at the moment of the incident died and 29 wounded people were rescued from the collapsed building. While mildly wounded people were treated ambulatorily, 9 seriously wounded people were hospitalized. Prophylactic mannitol- bicarbonate treatment was applied to 9 seriously wounded person. Crush syndrome was developed in 9 patients and 7 of them were treated and followed in our clinics. Mean age of the crush syndrome patients (5 male, 4 female) was 23.6±11.7 (6-42) years. Mean time of remaining in the collapsed building of the crush syndrome patients was 1589±2627 min (302-8010 min). Seven of 9 crush syndrome patients were rescued from the collapsed building within the first 24 hours and the other 2 patients were rescued at days 6 and 7. Most of the 29 wounded people were rescued from the 1st and 8th floors. Fasciotomy was applied to 5 of the 7 crush syndrome patients. Thanks to using prophylactic mannitol-bicarbonate treatment for blocking ARF, hemodialysis was applied only in 2 patients who had acute renal failure (ARF). Sepsis developed in one of these 2 patients and ARF improved in both of them. Myoglobinuria and myoglobinemia were determined in all of the crush syndrome patients.