Relevance of mangled extremity severity score to compartment syndromes

✍ Scribed by M. M. Uslu; N. S. Altun; E. Cila; O. S. Atik

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 321 KB
• Volume: 114
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-3916
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00444269

✦ Synopsis

This study investigated the relevance of a mangled extremity severity score (MESS) to the evaluation of intracompartmental pressure in injured patients. We measured intracompartmental pressures with a modification of the Whitesides method and compared these values with MESS in 27 patients after trauma. For 5 of them fasciotomy was necessary to relieve high intracompartmental pressures. In our series MESS seemed to correlate with intracompartmental pressure values (r = 0.733, P < 0.05). We conclude that the MESS system provides objective criteria in determining the risk of a compartment syndrome.