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Compartment Syndrome of the Leg and Foot

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Foot and Ankle Disorders

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Abstract

Compartment syndrome is one of the most feared complications, being more frequent at the level of the leg, in which almost 30% of these cases are related to a tibia fracture, and the frequency of presentation at the level of the foot is about 5% of the total body. This type of injury occurs more frequently in male patients between 30 and 40 years of age, who are in good muscular condition and may be associated with high- or low-energy injuries.

In relation to complications, they are generally related to the delay or absence of early diagnosis, a situation that produces muscular and nervous alterations (sensory and/or motor), producing deformities, gait alterations, and even medical-legal problems.

Surgical treatment is the most applied therapy, which seeks to decompress the affected compartments to improve local perfusion conditions and improve the prognosis of the lesion, the relationship between the time elapsed between the injury, diagnosis, and treatment being very important.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to Emilio and Pablo for their invitation and trust given to us to develop this chapter, and especially to Dr. Felipe Vega Rivera, Coordinator of the Centro de Enseñanza e Investigación en Cirugía (CEIC) of the Hospital Ángeles Lomas, for the invaluable cooperation to carry out the cadaveric dissections and photographs included in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Orthopaedics and Traumatology Institute at Zambrano Hellion Hospital, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, México

    Omar Ituriel Vela Goñi

  2. ABC Medical Center, Santa Fe Campus, Ciudad de México, México

    Luis Felipe Hermida Galindo

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  1. Omar Ituriel Vela Goñi
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  2. Luis Felipe Hermida Galindo
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Orthopedic Surgery Department, Clínica Alemana de Santiago - Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, RM - Santiago, Chile

    Emilio Wagner Hitschfeld

  2. Orthopedic Surgery Department, Clínica Alemana de Santiago - Universidad del Desarrollo, Hospital Militar de Santiago – Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, RM - Santiago, Chile

    Pablo Wagner Hitschfeld

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Vela Goñi, O.I., Hermida Galindo, L.F. (2022). Compartment Syndrome of the Leg and Foot. In: Wagner Hitschfeld, E., Wagner Hitschfeld, P. (eds) Foot and Ankle Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95738-4_59

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95738-4_59

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