Medial tibial stress syndrome – A case report

Abstract

The role of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP) is an ongoing educational one for the nurse. The practitioner will at some point encounter situations and cases that they have had little or no experience of before in their career. This case report is an example of just such a presentation for the author who examined a patient with Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS) who came to an ENP led minor injury unit (MIU) in Bristol. MTSS is a term which is used to describe the three main causes of MTSS. These are: stress fractures, periostitis and deep posterior compartment syndrome (DPCS) ( Detmer, 1986). It is noted that while still popular, the term ‘shin splints’ will not be discussed due to many authors considering it to be an ill defined lay term used to describe overuse injuries in the lower leg (Beck and Osternig, 1994; Ugalde and Batt, 2001; Story andCymet, 2006; Bouche and Johnson, 2007)) and should therefore be disregarded as a final diagnosis.