Rib pain: 6 causes you may not know

Rib pain is common if you have any damage around the rib area. It could be a sign of a broken rib, lung cancer, or a dangerous medical condition.

Rib pain often comes on suddenly, in a sharp, dull, or long-lasting pattern. In some cases, these pains are not serious health problems. It may go away on its own when you rest. However, in other cases, left rib pain or right rib pain is a medical emergency, requiring medical intervention as soon as possible.

There are many reasons why you may feel pain when you press on your ribs. To diagnose and determine the exact cause, your doctor will perform a physical exam or take pictures of your chest using X-ray or MRI techniques.

Below are 6 common causes.

1. Rib pain due to trauma

Severe trauma to the chest from falls, traffic collisions, and sports are the most common causes of rib pain. These types of injuries include:

• Broken rib
• Bruised chest
• Muscle tension

After an injury, if you have left rib pain or right rib pain, your doctor may perform an X-ray to determine which rib is damaged or broken.

2. Tietze .'s syndrome

Tietze is a syndrome associated with inflammation of the chest area or inflammation of the cartilage that attaches to the breastbone. This is a common cause of rib pain.

Tietez syndrome usually occurs in the cartilage that connects the upper ribs to the breastbone. The pain in the ribs caused by this syndrome ranges from mild to severe. The most common symptom is pain when pressing on the ribs. Severe cases can cause pain to spread to the arms or legs, affecting the patient's daily life.

3. Rib pain due to lung diseases

The lungs are located inside the ribcage and are surrounded by the surrounding ribs. So when you have pleurisy or other lung diseases that can affect the lining between your chest and lungs (called the pleura).

The pleura is the thin tissue that lines the chest wall and lungs. In a healthy person, these tissues are spaced and smoothly pass each other during breathing. When inflamed, they tend to rub against each other, causing pain in the rib area.

4. Lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in many countries around the world.

The most common symptom of lung cancer is rib pain. The pain gets worse when you try to breathe deeply, cough, or laugh. Other symptoms to look out for include coughing up blood, coughing with unusual phlegm, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

People with early stage lung cancer have many chances to cure the disease if they are treated early. Conversely, when it progresses to more advanced stages, the disease can be life-threatening. Metastatic lung cancer (cancer in another part of the body and then spreading to the lungs) will also cause pain in the ribs.

5. Rib pain due to fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes pain throughout the body. Statistically, fibromyalgia affects more women than men.

The pain associated with fibromyalgia is often accompanied by a burning, stabbing, or dull ache in the rib cage, ribs, and other areas of the body. The patient will often experience extreme discomfort.

6. Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism is a condition that occurs when an artery to the lungs becomes blocked by a blood clot.

Pulmonary embolism not only causes pain in the ribs, but also causes the following symptoms:

• Shortness of breath
• Quick breath
• Hemoptisi
• Dizzy
• Sweat
• Arrhythmic heartbeat.