Introduction
The shin bone is called the tibia in medical terminology. It is a long tubular bone of the lower leg. Another bone of the lower leg is the fibula, which is much narrower than the tibia and lies laterally outside the tibia.
At the proximal end of the tibia, i.e. at the end of the bone further towards the middle of the body, there is a so-called tibia plateau (lat. tibia plateau). This is the base for important structures of the knee joint, namely the cruciate ligaments and the menisci.
In addition, the shin bone is connected to the thigh bone (lat. femur) via the plateau, so that it is involved in the formation of the knee joint. Since it is a tubular bone, the shin bone has a long shaft.
This is the prominent site of the tibia bruise and also the origin and attachment of the muscles of the lower extremity. The distal part of the tibia, i.e. the part of the bone further away from the center of the body, is involved in the formation of the upper ankle joint. A contusion is a lesion that is accompanied by swelling and bruising due to external force.
In medical jargon, the bruise is also known as a contusion (lat. contusio). The contusion can affect various organs, so that a distinction is made between muscle, joint or bone contusion.
In our case of a tibial contusion, it is of course a bone contusion. The various contusions have in common that they are accompanied by oedema formation due to lymphatic fluid and blood leaking from the smallest blood vessels (capillaries). Predisposed sites for a bone contusion are generally sites where bony structures are relatively superficial.
Therefore, the tibia is a typical site of manifestation of a tibial contusion. As everyone knows from personal experience, there is only a thin layer of skin over the shin bone. The easily palpable bone part of the shin bone lying under the skin is called “Margo anterior”, a front edge of the bone.
This is a bone point that separates the middle and lateral bone surfaces of the tibia. The shaft has a total of 3 bone sides: a middle, a lateral, and a posterior side. The area between the edge of the bone and the skin is so thin because there is hardly any fat or muscle tissue in this area, which could act as a buffer or kind of shock absorber to protect against shin bruising. The fact that the thin skin is very well innervated also makes a shin bruise a very painful event.
