Synthetic cannabinoid use linked to rhabdomyolysis requiring dialysis in a cancer patient

A 48-year-old man with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who had undergone radical cystoprostatectomy developed severe back pain, reduced lower limb function, shortness of breath, elevated creatinine and creatine kinase, and decreased urine output postoperatively. Rhabdomyolysis was diagnosed and linked to synthetic cannabinoid use. The patient required continuous renal replacement therapy followed by hemodialysis.

Single case report documenting the clinical presentation, laboratory findings, diagnosis, and management of synthetic cannabinoid-induced rhabdomyolysis in a postoperative cancer patient. Includes literature review of the mechanism.

Synthetic cannabinoids carry toxicity risks that are qualitatively different from natural cannabis. Rhabdomyolysis is a life-threatening complication that may be underrecognized in synthetic cannabinoid users, and its occurrence in a surgical patient illustrates how synthetic cannabinoid use can complicate medical care.

Synthetic cannabinoids are often more potent and unpredictable than natural cannabis, producing effects that have no parallel with plant-derived products. Rhabdomyolysis is part of a broader pattern of serious organ toxicity from synthetic cannabinoids that includes kidney injury, cardiac events, and seizures.

Single case report cannot establish frequency of this complication. Post-surgical context introduces confounding factors for rhabdomyolysis (immobility, medications, surgical stress). Difficult to definitively attribute rhabdomyolysis to synthetic cannabinoids versus other postoperative factors.