Fasciotomy for chronic exertional compartment syndrome of the leg: clinical outcome in a large retrospective cohort

Background Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) is an overuse disorder typically affecting an athletic population. CECS is a diagnosis based on history and intracompartmental pressure (ICP) testing. CECS patients can be treated surgically by fasciotomy; however, research on the relationship between ICP and patient symptoms and also between ICP and patient-reported outcome post-fasciotomy is limited. This study aims to (1) assess functional outcome and patient satisfaction post-fasciotomy and (2) identify any potential correlation between ICP and reported levels of pain. Methods 138 CECS patients who had ICP measurements and subsequently underwent fasciotomy were identified from our regional service for exercise-induced lower limb extremity pain between January 2000 and March 2017. Clinical outcomes were recorded at the time of ICP testing and in the post-operative follow-up clinic. Pain was reported using a verbal rating scale (VRS) (‘low’, ‘moderate’ or ‘high’) or as a visual analogue score (VAS) 0–10 (0 = least painful, 10 = most painful). Spearman’s ranked correlation test was used to calculate correlation between ICP and reported pain. Results A total of 138 patients were eligible for inclusion in this study (mean age 29.7 ± 9.7 years, 110 M, 28 F) of which 109 patients (VRS n = 61, VAS n = 48) reported pain level at pre- and post-operative stages. Mean pre-operative VAS score was 8.52 ± 0.71, and decreased to 0.77 ± 0.69 post-operatively. An insignificant positive correlation ( r = 0.046, two-tailed p = 0.76) was found between VAS pain and ICP. A significant moderate positive correlation ( r = 0.497, two-tailed p = 0.01) was found between VRS pain and ICP. Conclusion Fasciotomy significantly reduces pain and increases activity levels in CECS patients. ICP was found to positively correlate with patient-reported pain.