Acute compartment syndrome after low-energy medial tibial plateau fracture in a young athlete: A case report and review of the literature

Enrico Bonicoli, Lorenzo Andreani, Nicola Piolanti, Veronica Zarra* and Michele Lisanti

Ortopaedics and Traumatology I Department University of Pisa, Via Paradisa 2 Pisa Zip Code 56121 Tuscany, Italy.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: veroz87@hotmail.it; Fax: +39050996501; Mobile: +393294092838

Accepted 30 April, 2013

Abstract

Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) is a terrible complication that can occur in tibial fractures, especially following high energy trauma, and if it is misdiagnosed it could bring to severe consequences. In this report we present a case of a 19-year-old caucasian male rugby player with a medial tibial plateau fracture atypically occurred after a low energy non-contact injury during sports. The diagnosis is generally clinic, based on physical examination, characterized by classic symptoms like severe pain, pallor or pulselessness and on accurated patient history taking. Unfortunately, in rare cases, clinical details are not enough and even further investigations can not predict wether the chosen surgical treatment will be completely decisive or another procedure will be necessary.

Keyword: Acute Compartment Syndrome; tibial plateau fracture; fracture-dislocation; knee trauma.