Experiencing pain in your chest can be alarming, and it’s natural to worry about serious conditions like a heart attack. However, not all chest pain originates from your internal organs. Sometimes, the discomfort can stem from your ribs or the surrounding area. If you’re asking “Why Would My Ribs Be Hurting?”, there are several potential culprits. Here, we explore three common conditions that can lead to rib cage pain, along with their distinct symptoms and typical treatments, helping you understand what might be causing your pain.
1. Bruised or Fractured Ribs
Your rib cage plays a vital protective role, shielding your heart, lungs, and other essential organs. Because of this protective function, ribs are often vulnerable to injury from trauma. Events like car accidents, falls, physical assaults, or even severe coughing fits can lead to bruised or fractured ribs. A bruised rib indicates damage to the bone, even if it isn’t actually cracked. Interestingly, the symptoms of both bruised and broken ribs are quite similar, primarily characterized by pain, especially when you breathe deeply or cough.
Telltale Sign: Pain from injured ribs intensifies when breathing, coughing, or performing movements like twisting or bending your body.
To determine the extent of the injury, your doctor may order a chest X-ray to check for rib fractures. If a fracture is confirmed, a CT scan might be necessary to assess potential lung damage.
Unlike other broken bones, ribs cannot be immobilized with a cast. Furthermore, they need to move with each breath you take. Despite the pain, it’s crucial to continue breathing deeply to keep your lungs clear. Shallow breathing due to pain can increase the risk of pneumonia, a respiratory complication that affects nearly a third of patients with rib fractures. To aid lung function, your doctor might provide a breathing device and prescribe pain medication to make breathing easier while your bruised or broken rib heals naturally.
A woman sitting on a park bench experiencing rib cage pain
2. Costochondritis
Costochondritis might be unfamiliar by name, but it’s actually a frequent cause of rib cage pain. Most of your ribs, except for the bottom two, connect to your sternum, or breastbone, through cartilage.
Dr. Rose Taroyan, a family medicine physician at Keck Medicine of USC and clinical associate professor of family medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, explains, “The areas where your ribs meet your breastbone, known as costosternal joints, can become inflamed.”
According to Dr. Taroyan, costochondritis manifests as pain, which can range from sharp to dull, and tenderness in your chest. It can be triggered by chest trauma, heavy lifting, strenuous exercise, or persistent coughing and sneezing.
Telltale Sign: Tenderness to the touch in the area where the ribs connect to the breastbone is a key indicator of costochondritis.
To rule out heart-related issues, your doctor might perform an electrocardiogram (ECG). Depending on your other symptoms, additional tests may be ordered. However, costochondritis typically resolves on its own within a few days to a few weeks.
Dr. Taroyan recommends self-care measures such as “stretching exercises, applying a heating pad to the painful area several times daily, and taking over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen.” She also advises, “Any activity that triggers or consistently worsens the pain should be reduced or stopped, at least temporarily.”
3. Pleurisy
Pleurisy affects the pleura, which are two layers of tissue lining the inside of your chest cavity and the outside of your lungs. The space between these layers is called the pleural space. Normally, these layers glide smoothly against each other as you breathe.
In pleurisy, these pleural layers become inflamed, often due to a viral infection, pneumonia, or another underlying medical condition. This inflammation causes them to rub together roughly, resulting in pain with every breath or cough. Fluid buildup in the pleural space can also occur, leading to shortness of breath.
Telltale Sign: Doctors can often hear a distinctive “friction rub,” the sound of the inflamed membranes rubbing together, when listening to your chest with a stethoscope.
Based on your symptoms, your doctor may order imaging tests or blood tests to identify the underlying cause of pleurisy and to check for fluid buildup. If fluid is present, it might need to be drained. If the pleurisy is caused by a bacterial infection, antibiotics will be prescribed. If a virus is the cause, the condition will likely need to run its course, with over-the-counter pain relievers helping to manage symptoms.
It’s important to seek immediate medical attention for any rib cage pain accompanied by difficulty breathing, bluish skin, or severe chest pain. In these cases, call 911 or go to the emergency room immediately.
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Topics: costochondritis, Dr. Rose Taroyan, fractured rib, pleurisy
By Tina Donvito, Freelance Writer
