Table 1: Etiology of compartment syndrome due to upper or lower extremity involvement. |
Causes in upper and lower extremities |
Long bone fracture |
Acute extremity ischemia with reperfusion |
Burn injury |
Crush injury |
Animal bites and stings |
Spontaneous hemorrhage/hematoma |
Soft tissue infection |
Non-traumatic myositis/myonecrosis/rhabdomyolysis |
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome / mass fluid resuscitation |
Leading causes in upper extremities |
Animal or insect bites and stings |
Iatrogenic high-pressure injection (liquid or gas) |
Intravenous extravasation injury |
Accidental/intentional intra-arterial injection |
Birth injury (e.g., neonatal compartment syndrome) |
Leading causes in lower extremities |
Prolonged immobilization |
Snakebite (due to the location of most snakebites) |