During the last several decades, participation in sports and exercise has increased dramatically both in the United States and abroad. For the most part, such emphasis on physical fitness is of positive consequence. However, athletics' increased has resulted in a virtual epidemic of overuse injuries. Perhaps the most common such syndrome consists of shin splints. At the present time, this disorder is incompletely understood.
It has been estimated that approximately 59% of Americans participate in some type of competitive or recreational athletic activity (6:301). According to Orava and Puranen (1979) shin splints account for 60% of all lesions causing pain in athletes' legs. Moreover, shin splints additionally represent about 10-15% of all running injuries (Gudas, 1980; James et al., 1978). Despite the prevalence of this medical problem, however, only one prospective study on shin splints has been undertaken: Andrish and colleagues examined a U.S. Naval Academy cohort of 2,777 cadets engaged in basic physical education training. Of this group, 97 suffered shin splints; the reported an incidence for the lesion was 4.07% (1:133).
Considerable ambiguity surrounds this particular pathologic condition. Perhaps such uncertainty is reflected in the variety of different labels applied to the disorder. For example, shin splints may also be known as posterior tibial tendinitis, anterior (or medial) shin splints, soleus syndrome, and tibial periostitis (5:412).
In addition, shin splints are variously defined. Slocum (1967), for instance, describes the condition as "a sterile mechanical inflammation of the muscle-tendon unit brought about by over-exertion of the muscles of the lower part of the leg during weight bearing (5:412)." Additionally, the American Medical Association's Standard Nomenclature of Athletic Injuries defines shin splints as "pain and discomfort in the leg from repetitive running on hard surfaces, a...