Introduction: Compartment syndrome (CS) continues to be a legitimate orthopedic emergency as it leads to thousands of amputations and permanent nerve and tissue damage to undiagnosed patients for more than eight hours. In CS, intracompartmental pressure is elevated, causing reduced blood flow inside the limb compartments. An erroneous diagnosis may result in unnecessary fasciotomies, the only treatment for this condition.
Areas covered: This review examines the previous and current diagnostic and therapeutic practices for compartment syndrome. It also performs a comparative analysis of each diagnostic technique and its foresights.
Expert opinion: Currently, most clinicians rely on a physical examination of the patient to diagnose CS. The primary reason for the physical examination is the lack of a gold-standard device. The invasive intracompartmental pressure (ICP) measurement technique is still the most commonly used. On the other hand, many noninvasive approaches have the potential to be used as diagnostic tools; however, more research is needed before they can be accepted as standard clinical approaches.
Keywords: Compartment syndrome; compartment pressure; fasciotomy; invasive techniques; non-invasive techniques; tissue oxygenation.