OBJECTIVE To assess whether published studies support basing the diagnosis of compartment syndrome of the lower leg on clinical findings. DATA SOURCES A MEDLINE search of the English literature from 1966 to 2001 was performed using "compartment syndromes" as the subject. A manual search of the bibliographies of retrieved articles and of major orthopaedic texts was also performed. STUDY SELE...

BACKGROUND The aim of our study was to document the estimated sensitivity and specificity of continuous intracompartmental pressure monitoring for the diagnosis of acute compartment syndrome. METHODS From our prospective trauma database, we identified all patients who had sustained a tibial diaphyseal fracture over a ten-year period. A retrospective analysis of 1184 patients was performed to ...

A 3-year-old boy was admitted to the emergency department with right lower limb pain, edema, and livedoid discoloration that occurred immediately after intramuscular injection of benzathine penicillin. The patient was diagnosed with Nicolau syndrome, a rare complication of intramuscular injection presumed to be related to the inadvertent intravascular injection. It was first reported following ...

Foot compartment syndrome is a serious potential complication of foot crush injury, fractures, surgery, and vascular injury. The purpose of this article is to summarize and review the existing literature on this entity. Long-term sequelae of foot compartment syndrome (FCS) include contractures, deformity, weakness, paralysis, and sensory neuropathy. These complications are poorly tolerated, and...

Complete absence of acute compartment syndrome was observed in a consecutive series of 966 tibial fractures in African patients of diverse ethnic groups, reviewed retrospectively at our institution. Considering the incidences reported in the literature, we should have experienced between 22 and 86 cases of acute compartment syndrome. The purpose of this prospective study was to confirm these fi...

BACKGROUND A compartment syndrome is a condition in which high pressure within a closed fascial space causes reduced blood flow with nerve and muscle ischaemia. Untreated compartment syndrome leads to ischaemia with necrosis, contractures, myofibrosis and irreversible functional impairment in the involved part of the limb. Calcaneal fractures and other kinds of foot trauma may cause acute compa...

Acute compartment syndrome of the thigh is a rare clinical entity often caused by high-energy trauma and presenting with a spectrum of associated injuries. Service members in combat are at risk for these causative mechanisms. This study presents a large cohort of thigh compartment syndrome combat casualties and investigates the injury mechanisms, associated mortality, and complications related ...

Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) is a diagnosis that requires high-clinical suspicion especially in cases when the initial causal event could be considered insignificant. We present a novel case presentation of ACS associated with minor trauma in a patient with a previous history of compartment syndrome in the same extremity from a motor vehicle accident 10 years prior to presentation. To the b...