Shin Splint VS Stress Fracture?? (How can you tell the difference?)

if your leg snaps one day while running, you had a stress fracture.

bump

I had a similar situation a few years ago. I thought I had shin splints until I got a x-ray of my legs. My sister-in-law is a x-ray tech and snuck me in one day show she could practice. She showed my film to a resident who showed me the stress fractures. He said only a x-ray can show the problem. So get a x-ray to be sure.

X ray pictures show the scarring and recovery activity thats taking place in the bone, fresh stress fractures are not visible on x-rays.

In my (painful) experience, shin splints is marked by a general tightness and ache, usually in both shins. You will prob. feel a little tightness immediately after your run, but it usually fades away until your next run. It's a very uncomfortable, inflamed feeling, but something that will go away with rest and treatment.

A stress fracture, on the other hand, is localized (like, in the lower tibula of one leg) and very sensitive to pressure. Pressing on it with your finger causes sharp pain. As a stress fracture is only a miniscule crack in the bone, though, so you won't be in too much pain when you're not running. Regardless, it requires immediate attention.

You may know that a stress fracture often doesn't show up on X-rays due to its small size. Therefore, if you or your doctor have any doubts, request a bone scan, which is more precise.

Finally, be careful with shin splints. I suffered a stress fracture during the winter of my freshman year in college, and it was preceded by about 4 weeks of severe shin splints. I'm no doctor, but I suspect the shin splints set me up for the fracture, perhaps weakening the bone through all the pressure and pulling.

definition resident: (n.) dumbass noob.

Now that that's cleared up, a bone scan is what you should get to diagnose the problem. If the pain moves around, and you can't really pinpoint it, then it's the splints. Also, when you wake up in the morning, a fracture feels fine because of the rest, whereas your splints will tend to flare up.

I went running yesterday and had a ton of pain in my shins. I am comming off a stres fracture that took me out for 5 months. The pain was in both legs however. It also went away after the run. walking down stairs however i can feel pain. does anyone have any idea what might be going on? i did increase my milage way to fast. i think after 5 months of no running the bone should be healed. what do you think? any help is really appreciated

tough call. better take it easy

Could be the shoe which is causing the problem. I was wearing a long/12 asics but switched 11-11.5 Saucauny and it fixed itself.

When you buy larger shoe sizes in some brands the length from heel to toe is so long that it forces your feet to stomp on each step. This will put a tremendous amount of pressure on your shins, possibly even initiating a stress fracture.

-Soup

Seems like reason in itself to buy correctly sized shoes, even though I don't fully buy your diagnosis. I still think that shoes that fit are a good idea anyways.

i hurt

I switched to Saucony... and that in itself healed my shin splints (well at least one of the 5 or 6 cases I had).