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Shin pain – 3 common causes

My basketball-playing teen has sore legs. They told him at his school that it is shin splints. My husband says this is common, and that my son can play through the pain. This boy never complains about anything. He is complaining about his legs.

The complaint: having lower leg pain in the shin-bone area. The shin is the lower leg bone, the bone between the ankle and the knee. Its real name is the tibia. Shin splints is just another way of saying that there is pain the region of that bone. It’s not a diagnosis.

The precise cause of shin pain ought to be determined. Howev3r, most of the causes result from overuse, and their treatment involves rest and taking anti-inflammatory medicines, like Aleve, Advil and Motrin. Moist heat also helps. And often a change of shoes is required. The boy should definitely not “play through the pain.”

Medial, tibial-stress syndrome is one big cause of shin pain. Leg muscles adjacent to the shin pull on the bone’s covering, the periosteum. That inflames the periosteum and produces pain. If your son bends his foot upward [dorsal flexion] and that increases the pain, that’s a sign of periosteal inflammation. People with this syndrome often have a foot that rotates too much to the big-toe side when the foot hits the ground. A change to a shoe that prevents this rolling over prevents inflammation.

Stress fractures of the shin bone are another cause of shin pain. Again, this situation comes from too much use with too little rest for repair. The pain of stress fractures is usually limited to a single point on the bone. Rest is important. If the bone doesn’t have a chance to heal, a true break can result.

A third common cause of shin pain is compartmental syndrome. The muscles of the lower leg are sheathed by tight tissue, like sausage covering. Overused muscles swell. Too much swelling compresses the muscles’ arteries and leads to leg pain. Pronounced swelling is an emergency that calls for surgical intervention.

by Dr. Paul Donohue

Tags: leg pain, overuse, shin pain