Objectives: To quantify the impact of compartment syndrome in the setting of tibial shaft fracture on hospital length of stay (LOS) and total hospital charges.
Design: Retrospective case-control study.
Setting: All New York State hospital admissions from 2001 to 2011, as recorded by the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database.
Patients: Thirty three thousand six hundred twenty-nine inpatients with isolated open or closed fractures of the tibia and/or fibula (AO/OTA 41-43). Six hundred ninety-two patients developed a compartment syndrome in the setting of tibia fracture. All patients were filtered to ensure none had other complications or medical comorbidities that would increase LOS or total hospital charges.
Intervention: Fasciotomy and delayed closure in patients who developed a compartment syndrome.
Main outcome measure: Hospital LOS (days) and total inflation-adjusted hospital charges.
Results: A total of 33,629 patients with tibial shaft fracture were included in the study. There were 32,937 patients who did not develop a compartment syndrome. For this group, the mean LOS was 6 days, and the mean inflation-adjusted hospital charges were $34,000. Patients who developed compartment syndrome remained in-house for an average of 14 days with average charges totaling $79,000. These differences were highly significant for both lengths of stay and hospital charges (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: Besides the obvious physical detriment experienced by patients with compartment syndrome, there is also a significant economic impact to the healthcare system. Compartment syndrome after a tibial fracture more than doubles LOS and total hospital charges. These findings highlight the need for a standardized care algorithm aimed toward efficiently and adequately treating acute compartment syndrome. Such an algorithm would optimize cost of care and presumably decrease LOS.
Level of evidence: Economic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.