What are the symptoms of rib inflammation?

The ribs are an important part of the thoracic cavity. If costitis occurs, it will have a great impact on the patient's health and life. After the onset of costitis, patients will have obvious symptoms, such as obvious local tenderness, throbbing pain, stabbing pain, and deep breathing will aggravate the pain, etc. Such discomfort should be treated with medical examination immediately.

1. Nonspecific costochondritis

In the early stage of the disease, patients feel chest pain. After a few days, swelling, bulge, dull pain or sharp pain appear in the affected costal cartilage. The site of occurrence is mostly the 2nd to 4th costal cartilage beside the sternum, with the 2nd costal cartilage being the most common, and occasionally it can also occur in the costal arch. This disease often affects a single rib, but occasionally multiple ribs or both sides of the ribs are affected at the same time. There is obvious local tenderness, and the pain radiates to the scapula or side shoulder, upper arm, and armpit of the back. The pain is aggravated by deep breathing, coughing, activity, chest straightening, and fatigue. Acute cases may occur suddenly, with a feeling of stabbing, throbbing or soreness in the chest; insidious cases develop slowly, causing the junction of the ribs and costal cartilage to become bow-shaped, swollen, and dull pain without any changes in the skin. The pain varies in severity and often lingers. Because the lesion is located in the upper part of the breast, there is also referred pain in the breast on the same side, and female patients mistakenly think they have breast pain and seek medical treatment. However, diseases of the breast itself can often be identified by feeling a lump or cord-like object in the breast, or by local redness of the breast skin. The course of the disease may last for several hours or days, but it may relapse and usually heal itself within a few months, but in some cases it may last for several years.

2. Infectious costochondritis

The local skin will become red, swollen, hot and painful, with chest pain being the main symptom. Most of the symptoms are of this type first, with varying degrees of severity. Patients are afraid to take deep breaths or cough due to chest pain, which can easily lead to lung infection. Soft tissue necrosis can form abscesses, and rupture of abscesses can form sinus tracts. Patients often have obvious systemic infection symptoms.

examine

1. X-ray examination

Chest X-ray examination of nonspecific costochondritis cannot reveal signs of lesions, but it helps to rule out intrathoracic lesions, chest wall tuberculosis, and rib osteomyelitis. Infectious costochondritis. Chest X-rays of infectious costochondritis can show local soft tissue swelling and bone destruction, and can also rule out localized empyema. X-ray iodized oil sinusography can also show the extent of the lesion.

2. Ultrasound

It can show the swelling of the costal cartilage and observe the changes in swelling by comparing the two sides.

3. CT

Examination reveals the site of the lesion and can well display cartilage swelling and ossification.