Abstract
Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) is a relatively rare condition that affects young adult athletes and often causes them to present to the emergency department. If left untreated, those who continue to compete at high levels may experience debilitating leg pain. Physicians may have difficulty differentiating CECS from other syndromes of the lower leg such as medial tibial stress syndrome, stress fractures, and popliteal artery entrapment. The gold standard for diagnosing CECS is intramuscular compartment pressure monitoring before and/or after 10 minutes of exercise. Some patients may choose to stop participation in sports in order to relieve their pain, which otherwise does not respond well to nonoperative treatments. In patients who wish to continue to participate in sports and live an active life, fasciotomy provides relief in 80% or more. The typical athlete can return to training in about 8 weeks. This is a case of a high school soccer player who stopped competing due to chronic exertional compartment syndrome. She had a fascial hernia, resting intramuscular pressure of 30 mmHg, and postexercise intramuscular pressure of 99 mmHg. Following fasciotomy she experienced considerable life improvement and is once again training and playing soccer without symptoms.
Highlights
Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) is a relatively rare condition that affects young adult athletes and often causes them to present to the emergency department
The typical athlete can return to training in about 8 weeks. This is a case of a high school soccer player who stopped competing due to chronic exertional compartment syndrome
We believe this study further shows the success of fasciotomy in CECS albeit slightly less positive than literature related strictly to young athletes
Summary
Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) is a relatively rare condition that affects young adult athletes and often causes them to present to the emergency department If left untreated, those who continue to compete at high levels may experience debilitating leg pain. The typical athlete can return to training in about 8 weeks This is a case of a high school soccer player who stopped competing due to chronic exertional compartment syndrome. The patient stated that the pain has become increasingly worse even with the moderate exertion of walking or climbing steps at school and was consistently worse in the right leg She experienced numbness previously during exercise as well as zingers radiating through the anterior and lateral compartments, again more noticeable in her right leg. Lack of improvement with exercise modification along with prolonged pain after exercise led us to consider chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) in addition to medial
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