title: Rhabdomyolysis, acute renal failure, and multiple focal neuropathies after drinking alcohol soaked with centipede.
abstract: Many Chinese like to drink alcohol soaked with creatures for promoting health. This study reports a 49-year-old male who presented with multiple focal neuropathies of the upper limbs, coagulopathy, erythematous swelling of the bilateral upper extremities and trunk with bullous skin lesions, and rhabdomyolysis associated with acute renal failure after drinking alcohol soaked with centipede. Soaking a centipede, Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans, in 53% alcohol, produced the wine. Supportive treatment was administered, and the skin lesions and renal failure improved with subsequent neurologic deficit during the week following initial presentation. Alcohol binge or immobilization was the likely cause of neuropathy, bullous skin lesions and rhabdomyolysis in the patient. However, there is a possibility that centipede venom also contributed to the illness in this patient.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Chiayi, Putz, Taiwan. ikwang@seed.net.tw
authors.forename: I-Kuan
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shih-Pin
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Ching-Chi
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Kam-Fai
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Paul Yann
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hsueh-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Feng-Rong
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Chuang
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000209:etiology*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000818:Animals; D001180:Arthropod Venoms / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007313:Insecta; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D012206:Rhabdomyolysis / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D001180:Arthropod Venoms