Shin injuries - the value of compression

Hello, I'm Gary Bane from the Wound Guy. Throughout life, we often get bangs and knocks and scrapes to our lower limbs. When we're young, we don't think about it that much because those injuries tend to get better pretty much by themselves. But as we get older, the process of ageing, perhaps there are comorbidities or other illnesses, or there might be medications like steroids and blood thinners. And in these situations, a bang to the lower leg or shin may, in fact, be much more significant and harder to deal with. You see, sometimes we will get swelling around the injury. We will find that on occasions there will be blood blisters or collections of blood within the deeper tissues and we call that a hematoma. On other occasions the skin may in fact be broken and we see a laceration or a skin tear. Now if there is a wound we will need a dressing. But in every form of injury to the shin there will be a requirement to try and facilitate healing and particularly to deal with any collection of fluid that may be in the lower limb. So the key thing here is compression, compression that goes from toe to knee. An important thing to know about is your lymphatic pathway, which drains from the top of the foot to go around the outside of the ankle, it goes in front of the shin to then come across to the inside of your thigh and drain up into the groin. So when your shin has an injury, it's not just your soft tissue, but it's your lymphatic pathway which may also be damaged. So to help this do its job well, to help you get rid of swelling in the lower leg and prevent more swelling, it's really important to support that lower limb by compression. Now that compression may consist of something as simple as a few layers of an elastic tubular bandage. There will be other instances where a definitive compression bandage or bandaging system may be required. So please talk to your clinician about what your need may in fact be. But do remember that if you get a bang to your shin, the next time that happens, invariably you will find you will recover it so much faster if there is compression applied to that lower limb. I hope this has been a helpful tip. Thank you for listening, goodbye for now.