ABSTRACT
Exertional lower-limb pain is very common in running athletes, but the existing literature is confusing, with terms such as overuse lower limb injury (OLLI), exertional lower limb pain (ELLP), medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) and chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS), along with the colloquial term ‘shin splints’ widely used to group and differentiate many of the same clinical presentations. The underlying mechanism of these conditions is muscle overload, and accordingly, they should be grouped together as a new diagnosis of biomechanical overload syndrome (BOS), rather than viewed as entities on their own.
