How to identify, treat and prevent medial tibial stress syndrome

The term “Shin splints” is often used by physicians, athletes and coaches to describe pain along the tibia. In the literature there are several different conditions with different pathologies that can manifest this region. It is therefore of significance to make a correct diagnosis in order to treat and prevent the symptoms at hand. It is proposed that shin splints should be used only to describe symptoms in a certain location when not related to stress fractures, compartment syndrome and muscle hernia. However, this term is not a diagnostic term and should not be used by health professionals. Rather should they examine the cause of the pain and name the outcome according to the actual pathophysiology (1). A term that is often used in the literature is medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS). However, this term has also been criticized because the lack of exact descriptive pathology. A more descriptive term that accounts for the inflammatory, traction event on the tibial aspect of the leg common in runners is medial tibial traction periostitis or just medial tibial periostitis (inflammation of the periosteum, the thin layer of connective tissue surrounding the bone).