Chronic lower leg pain: entrapment of common peroneal nerve or tibial nerve

Young individuals with chronic exercise-induced lower leg pain (ELP) who have normal compartmental muscle pressures and normal imaging occasionally suffer from a nerve entrapment syndrome. These patients have consistently undergone a variety of diagnostic tests and often futile therapies prior to arriving at the correct diagnosis. Awareness among traumatologists regarding these nerve entities is low. A lower leg discomfort that is frequently present at night but worsens during exercise combined with altered foot skin sensations suggests an entrapment of the common peroneal or tibial nerve. If conservative therapies fail, neurolysis is advised.