Diagnosis and management of chronic compartment syndromes: a review of the literature.

Compartment syndromes may be acute or chronic. Acute syndromes may complicate fracture, soft tissue trauma, burns, and drug overdose. Very rarely is excessive exercise the underlying cause.` Sportsmen and women (particularly footballers) are perhaps more prone to this condition than the general population because of the high incidence of tibial fractures. Acute compartment syndromes are a potentially limb threatening problem that should be dealt with urgently and hence are more in the remit of orthopaedic and accident and emergency departments than of sports