Acute compartment syndrome in a hypothyroid patient.

Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) is caused by conditions that either decrease the size of the compartment of increase the content of the compartment. Intracompartmental pressures are raised, thereby initiating a sequence of events that results in myoneural injury. Although limb trauma is the most common and well-organized etiology of ACS, the cause is frequently not readily apparent. Thyroid disease is not a commonly recognized cause of ACS; only one case of ACS associated with hypothyroidism has been previously reported. We now describe a second case of ACS in a patient with severe hypothyroidism and discuss the possible pathogenesis of this association.