Acute Adrenal crisis. #viral #medicalstudent #endocrinesystem #mbbs #cerebellum #@dramitofficial

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:01]Hello doctor and medical students, I'm Dr. Amit.

[00:00:03]So, today we'll move forward in our endocrine series and today we'll talk about acute adrenal insufficiency, which is also called as adrenal crisis. So, in our medicine, we use the term acute. It means that the disease has sudden onset.

[00:00:18]It has a rapid progression and a short duration. And whenever you we used the word chronic, it means that it's a gradual onset. It is a It has a slow progression and it has a long duration.

[00:00:29]So, now let's talk about the risk factor of acute adrenal insufficiency, okay?

[00:00:33]So, talking about the risk factor of acute adrenal insufficiency, the most important is adrenal hemorrhage or infarctions. Whenever there is hemorrhage or infarction in the adrenal gland. The second one is acute illness or injury or surgery in a patient who is on chronic glucocorticoid use or any patient who is chronic adrenal insufficiency like in case of Addison's disease or a patient with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which is because of enzyme deficiency. And sometimes it is also seen because of pituitary apoplexy.

[00:01:04]Whenever there is hemorrhage or infarctions in the pituitary gland.

[00:01:08]So, now let's talk about the clinical feature of patient with acute adrenal insufficiency. So, the patient may present with acute abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting. Then the patient may have altered mental status. The patient will be in hypotension. The patient will be in shock. After then, the patient may present with fever and there will be acute kidney injury because of less blood supply to the kidney and the patient will also complain of weakness.

[00:01:37]Now, while talking about the diagnostic testing, we'll check the serum cortisol level. Then we'll check the glucose level of the patient that whether the patient is in hypoglycemia or not. Then we'll check the electrolytes like the patient has hyponatremia or hyperkalemia. Then we'll check the blood urea nitrogen and creatinine to to whether the patient is in AKI or not. Then we'll check the renin level to check whether the rash system has been activated or not. Then we'll once the patient is a stable then we'll do ACTH stimulation test.

[00:02:08]Now, while talking about the treatment parts, so treatment parts required rapid volume replacements with glucocorticoid replacement therapy with IV hydrocortisones and or dexamethasones.

[00:02:20]So between hydrocortisones and dexamethasones we prefer dexamethasones because dexamethasones doesn't interfere with serum cortisol level when we check the serum cortisol level because hydrocort and cortisols chemical structure is similar so it interfere with the serum cortisol level so we prefer dexamethasone. And to replace the mineralocorticoids we give fludrocortisones. So this is a short and quick revision on acute adrenal crisis.

[00:02:45]Thank you for listening and please subscribe my YouTube channel at the Dr. Amit Official for more medical contents.

[00:02:50]Thank you.