[Does covered tibial intramedullary nailing promote formation of a compartment syndrome? Perioperative and intraoperative continuous monitoring of compartmental pressure in covered tibial intramedullary nailing].

Between October 1988 and October 1989 we performed a continuously pressure monitoring with the infusion technique in the tibialis anterior and deep posterior compartment of the lower leg during the nailing of the tibia in complete fractures of the lower leg in 16 patients. We set up 2 groups of patients because of different pathophysiological conditions: patients, who were operated on a few days after trauma (Group A) and patients operated on months after the trauma (Group B) because of non-union of the tibia. The effects of the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative manipulations were recorded. In no case we saw a beginning compartmental syndrome, although very high pressures of 100 mmHg in Group A and 55 mmHg in Group B in the deep posterior compartment during reduction of the fracture were registrated. The registrated pressures correlated very well with the manipulations during the operation and were absolutely reversible after the ending of these manipulations. In our observation the closed tibia nailing does not favorize the development of a compartmental syndrome, if not done during the vulnerable phase after the first days after trauma, in blunt multiple trauma patients and during bleeding complications.