Lower leg compartment syndrome

Triathlon Forum
1

I have a friend who is both an avid runner and weight lifter. A few months back, he decided to start taking creatine (from advice from a weight lifting buddy). Well, the creatine did what it was supposed to. He but on weight fast (water weight) and was noticing improvements in his ability to do more reps when lifting. He continued to run 4 times a week, averaging 5 miles a run. About 2 weeks ago, he started noticing some tightness and weakness in his lower right leg when running. No numbness however. He has suffered from shin splints before (MTSS) and described this pain as different and not as localized. I did a little research and discovered that creatine can lead to compartment syndrome in the lower legs since the muscles swell with water and this can put pressure on any of the compartments. Add to this the additional stress from running and I can see how it would be easy to overload the compartments with pressure.

He has stopped the creatine and running for now and is seeing a very slow improvement in his leg symptoms. He said elevating his leg has seemed to help with the symptoms more than anything. My question for anyone is does this sound like compartment syndrome? And if so, what is the normal healing time for what appears to be a mild case in my friend?

2

This just happend in my training. I did some quick Google searches (Creatine - running - cramps) and found some good explainations of what you are discussing above and what I am feeling. It apears there is a subset of individuals that get the affect you asked about. The recommendation - add Sodium/Magnesium and water or stop taking it.

I think i’m gonna stop taking it.

3

Creatine is useless for endurance sports. The weight gain alone is a huge negative. From what I understand, it takes a good month after cessation of creatine use for your body’s creatine level to return to a normal level. In my friend’s case, and if in fact he has developed compartment syndrome as a side-effect of creatine use, I wonder if his leg issue will only resolve once his level returns to normal?