Acute compartment syndrome is a surgical emergency in which rising pressure within a closed muscle compartment cuts off blood flow to the muscles and nerves inside it. If the pressure is not relieved by fasciotomy within hours, the result can be permanent muscle and nerve damage, contracture, limb loss, or, in severe cases, life-threatening systemic complications. It commonly follows fractures, crush injuries, tight casts or dressings, reperfusion after vascular injury, and certain elective orthopaedic procedures.
Common allegations in compartment syndrome litigation include failure to recognize pain out of proportion to the injury and the other classic warning signs, failure to monitor an at-risk patient, failure to remove or loosen a constricting cast, and delay in performing or arranging the fasciotomy that would have salvaged the limb. As in other clinical contexts, the standard of care functions as background only: the actual standard is established through expert evidence, usually from orthopaedic, emergency, or plastic surgery specialists, and is calibrated to the setting in which the patient presented.
Posts tagged Compartment Syndrome analyze Ontario decisions involving missed or delayed compartment syndrome, including cases that progressed to amputation.
A defendant physician accessed his former patient’s hospital records during litigation. The Divisional Court remitted the CPSO disposition for reconsideration.
Most ER visits are for minor concerns. For the small number that are not, missing the diagnosis can be fatal. Five conditions that recur in malpractice cases.
A missed diagnosis of compartment syndrome cost a patient her leg. The trial judge found the ER physician breached the standard of care.
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