Zenker's degeneration is a severe glassy or waxy hyaline degeneration or necrosis of skeletal muscles in acute infectious diseases.
The condition was named by Friedrich Albert von Zenker.
It is a hyaline degeneration of skeletal muscles as rectus abdominis and diaphragm, and occurs in severe toxaemia as typhoid fever.
Grossly the muscles appear pale and friable; microscopically, the muscle fibres are swollen, have a loss of cross striations, and show a hyaline appearance. Rupture and small hemorrhage may complicate the lesion.