Acute adrenal insufficiency (adrenal crisis)

Life-threatening emergency

•Abrupt adrenal failure

•Bilateral adrenal infarction

•Bilateral adrenal hemorrhage (Waterhouse-Friedrichson syndrome)

•Primary adrenal insufficiency

•Serious infection, sepsis

•Acute stress in previously undiagnosed cases

•Secondary adrenal insufficiency

•Abrupt withdrawal from GC

•Catastrophic HPA axis failure

•Head trauma

•Haemorrhage of pituitary adenoma

•Postpartum hypopituitarism (Sheehan syndrome

Treatment of adrenal crisis

1.Rehydration

2.Hydrocortisone i.v.

3.Symptomatic treatment of the cause