The larger and medial bone of the lower leg, commonly called the shinbone. It bears most of the body's weight and articulates with the femur at the knee and with the talus at the ankle, forming crucial weight-bearing joints.
From Latin 'tibia' meaning flute or pipe, referring to the bone's tubular shape. Ancient Romans noted its resemblance to musical wind instruments, and the term has remained in anatomical use since antiquity.
Your tibia is the second-largest bone in your body and has almost no muscle covering on its front surface - that's why hitting your shin hurts so much and why 'shin splints' are felt so acutely! It also has a relatively poor blood supply in its middle third, which is why tibial fractures there are notorious for healing slowly or not at all.
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