Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Sep 18, 2016; 7(9): 618-622
Published online Sep 18, 2016. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i9.618
Compartment syndrome following total knee replacement: A case report and literature review
Mohammed Shaath, Mohamed Sukeik, Saadallah Mortada, Sean Masterson
Mohammed Shaath, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, North Manchester General Hospital, Crumpsall M8 5RB, United Kingdom
Mohamed Sukeik, Saadallah Mortada, Sean Masterson, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Queens Hospital, Romford RM7 0AG, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Shaath M and Sukeik M designed the report; Sukeik M, Mortada S and Masterson S collected the patient’s clinical data; Shaath M, Sukeik M, Mortada S and Masterson S analyzed the data; Shaath M and Sukeik M wrote the paper.
Institutional review board statement: This case report was exempt from the Institutional Review Board standards at Queens Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Unfortunately in December 2014, the patient died from causes unrelated to the contents of this case report. Written consent was therefore not obtained despite the patient verbally agreeing to publish it in the immediate postoperative phase. However, in light of the importance of the article message, we have included no identifiable patient information and feel this report should still be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest for any of the authors
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mohamed Sukeik, MD, MRCSEd, PGA, Specialist Registrar in Trauma and Orthopaedics, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Queens Hospital, Rom Valley Way, Romford RM7 0AG, United Kingdom. msukeik@hotmail.com
Telephone: +44-208-9542300 Fax: +44-127-9827672
Received: March 29, 2016
Peer-review started: March 29, 2016
First decision: May 17, 2016
Revised: May 29, 2016
Accepted: July 11, 2016
Article in press: July 13, 2016
Published online: September 18, 2016
Abstract

Compartment syndrome is a rare complication of total knee replacement (TKR) surgery that needs prompt diagnosis and treatment as it may be associated with high morbidity and mortality. We have found very few reports in the literature describing compartment syndrome after TKRs and therefore, present a relevant case which occurred in the immediate postoperative phase and was treated with fasciotomy and subsequent operations to close the soft tissue defects.

Keywords: Compartment syndrome, Complications, Knee replacement, Treatment

Core tip: A case report and literature review of compartment syndrome following total knee replacement surgery is presented. Predisposing factors supported by literature are detailed and compared to findings from this case report emphasizing on early intervention to prevent subsequent complications.