Medial tibial pain. A prospective study of its cause among military recruits.

In a prospective study of 295 infantry recruits during 14 weeks of basic training, 41% had medial tibial pain. Routine scintigraphic evaluation in cases of medial tibial bone pain showed that 63% had abnormalities. A stress fracture was found in 46%. Only two patients had periostitis. None had ischemic medial compartment syndrome. Physical examination could not differentiate between cases with medial tibial bone pain secondary to stress fractures and those with scintigraphically normal tibias. When both pain and swelling were localized in the middle one-third of the tibia, the lesion most likely proved to be a stress fracture.