Acute adrenal crisis (also called Addisonian crisis) is a life-threatening complication in which adrenal insufficiency manifests without warning, often due to a stressful event such as surgery, trauma, or infection. The patient's need for cortisol and aldosterone is greater than the body's supply, so hyponatremia, hypovolemia, and hyperkalemia progress rapidly, putting the patient at risk for cardiovascular collapse (more on this later).