A case is reported of acute renal failure occurring after prolonged abdominal aortic bypass surgery in an overweight 69-year-old male patient. Preoperative serum creatinine concentration was normal. Surgery lasted for 6 h, and infrarenal aortic cross-clamping 2 1/2 h. The patient complained of important lumbar pain immediately after the operation. In the same time, oliguria and acute renal failure also developed (creatinine: 464 mumol.l-1; urea: 13 mmol.l-1). Rhabdomyolysis caused by the kidney-bridge was confirmed by the elevated blood creatine phosphokinase levels (16,000 IU.l-1 on the second postoperative day). A 99 m-Technetium methylene-diphosphonate imaging on the 10th postoperative day exhibited diffuse fixation in the paravertebral lumbar and thoracic muscles, extending from Th8 to L3. The acute renal failure regressed completely after haemodialysis.