I received the MRI results from my doctor yesterday and we ruled out stress fractures. He put me on a running plan and told me I could not start it until I was pain free. If I experienced any pain while running, I should stop immediately. He also mentioned exertional compartment syndrome. Has anyone had surgery to correct this? and was it successful?
Search the archives here for “compartment syndrome”… you’ll find several excellent threads on the subject, including commentary from people (including me) who have had the surgery.
I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on the Internet, but compression sleeves strike me as a HORRIBLE idea for dealing with compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is, itself, a form of compression… adding more compression to the mix seems likely to make the problem worse.
At least one of the posters on previous compartment syndrome threads here is a doctor. Hopefully he will read this thread and chime in.
So, you have/had lower leg pain and got an MRI to rule out a stress fracture and now are talking about compartment syndrome? Those are pretty different clinical presentations and it sounds like your doc has/had no idea what was going on. The general rule of thumb when getting an MRI is to CONFIRM (or rule out) a diagnosis or for surgical planning, no to make a diagnosis.
Also, wearing compression sleeves is obviously not advisable. Has a treadmill wick catheter test been suggested/ordered? You also said he put you on a running plan. Now, I occasionally do this for patients, but not too many docs/athletes/“coaches” out there.
Something just not quite right here though, although I’m sure we are lacking a lot of other information.
The MRI was done to rule out the stress fractures. The compartment syndrome was given to me as a suggested posibility. The doc mentioned the treadmill wick catheter test but suggested I start slowly with a simple running plan and see what the results are for the next few weeks. The MRI was done after 2 weeks of rest. Should I continue (or start) the running plan this week or immediately request a wick catheter test? I have lived with this pain for many years and for once would like to run pain free.
Again, if you have run with this pain for many years, one can pretty safely rule out a stress fracture on history alone - let along a simple clinical exam of focal tenderness, tuning fork test, etc.
Not really sure what you are waiting for since you know it will likely return when you start running again, right? Yes, get the wick catheter test and make the decision about a fasciotomy. Plenty of reading to do re: that.