For Education of the Week, we are going to be covering Compartment Syndrome. This is an important diagnosis for the Emergency Department for many reasons:

• It should be a talking point with your patients being discharged with fractures.

• You may get pressured to discharge someone at high-risk for compartment syndrome that shouldn't go home.

• Someone that didn't have compartment syndrome on your initial evaluation may have it later in their ED course or after transfer. (Shout out to Dr. Barbara who saved one of my South transfers by making this diagnosis)

• We are the experts in checking compartment pressures in our hospital. The last several times we had cases in the ED, we taught our consultants how to use the Stryker needle.

• Time is money: you can have permanent injury within hours. 

• The ED providers are at high-risk for litigation with this diagnosis.

• Once something is covered for Education of the Week, there is a lot higher chance it comes to the ED in the next couple of weeks.

Please see the attached PDF for more on compartment syndrome. The PDF links to the video that shows how to measure compartment pressures from EM:Rap.

Until next week.

Thanks,

Dr. Caputo