Gluteal compartment syndrome.

A systematic review of the literature on gluteal compartment syndrome was performed using Medline Ovid and PubMed search engines. Publications were included if they described the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and functional outcome of this syndrome. Seven articles with a total of 28 cases met the eligibility criteria, all of which were retrospective case studies. The most common cause of gluteal compartment syndrome was prolonged immobilization. Diagnosis was based on either clinical presentation or measurement of compartmental pressures. Treatment most commonly involved surgical decompression (71% of cases). Functional outcome was assessed differently among the various studies.