Pain on inhalation

For some people, pain when inhaling causes incredible suffering. As soon as a person begins to inhale, he or she may be pierced by a sharp pain - either in the chest, or in the back, or under the shoulder blade. But pain in the heart area when entering does not necessarily indicate pain in the heart itself. What are the causes of pain when inhaling and how to eliminate it?

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The main causes of chest pain when inhaling

When a person feels chest pain when inhaling, coughing, or even sneezing, it means that the pleura or the area around the heart and near it may be affected. The pain may be located on the left side of the chest or on the right side of the chest. It may be sharp, stabbing, or it may be dull, long-lasting, and dull.

Inflammation of the membrane

The membrane lines the chest cavity from the inside and covers the lungs. When the membrane becomes inflamed, severe chest pain occurs. Most often, pain when inhaling indicates that a person has dry pleurisy, a sign of pneumonia. Pleurisy can develop on its own, or it can occur due to lung diseases.

The fact that a person has dry pleurisy may be indicated by such signs as chest pain when inhaling, which becomes a little quieter when the person turns over onto the side that hurts.

It is difficult to breathe, painful, each breath can be accompanied by pain and coughing. Breathing can be difficult, weakened, and when the doctor takes a phonendoscope to listen to such a person, he hears noises. This is the pleural sheets making noise. A person can have a subfebrile body temperature, that is, an elevated temperature of 37-38 degrees Celsius.

Temperature and difficulty breathing, as well as severe pain when inhaling, are also accompanied by chills, increased sweating, especially at night, and weakness of the body.

Pleural tumors or pericarditis

These diseases can be the cause of severe pain when inhaling. At the same time, movements are greatly limited, but this may be due to the fact that the person has a deformed rib cage, especially the thoracic spine. Keep in mind that with these diseases and deformations, pain bothers a person not only when inhaling, but also when exhaling.

When a person has dry pericarditis, the pain constantly increases during inhalation and the slightest movement. This causes shortness of breath, he can choke and his inhalation becomes shorter than his exhalation. The pain with dry pleurisy is like a swing - sometimes strong, sometimes weak. You need to pay attention to this when you tell your doctor about your ailment.

If the interpleural ligament is shortened, the person does not cough sharply and dryly, but rather coughs. This cough becomes stronger and more intense during conversation, inhalation and exhalation, as well as physical exertion, even minor.

With a shortened interpleural ligament, a person may experience pain when walking and especially when running. They are not viscous, but stabbing. These signs can be used to determine that the interpleural ligament is not the required length.

Renal colic

With this disease, pain when inhaling is also an indicative symptom. Renal colic provokes pain under the right rib and under the spoon, and after a short time it spreads throughout the entire abdominal area. Pain when inhaling (with a diagnosis of intercostal neuralgia) can radiate to the area of the right shoulder blade, shoulder (also right), and can also become even stronger during inhalation. Pain can also bother when palpating the gallbladder area. Very severe pain can occur in a person when a doctor presses his fingers in the area of the 10-12 thoracic vertebrae during an examination, retreating 2 fingers to the right side from the spinous processes.

Rib fracture

With this injury, naturally, inhaling is much more painful than exhaling. The chest hurts, is compressed, squeezed, and every breath brings a person severe suffering, as does coughing.

Pain in precordial syndrome

When a person inhales, the pain in the heart area becomes so unbearable that it is easy to confuse it with a heart attack. It turns out that this is a misconception, because there is no heart attack in fact - it is a signal of a breakdown of the body precordial syndrome. The peculiarity of this disease is that it very often occurs in children from six years old, teenagers and young people, and not in those whose heart is worn out and cannot perform its functions.

True, this syndrome can bother people in old age, but not often. Pain in precordial syndrome is characterized by the fact that it appears very quickly and passes just as quickly. It can torment a person for 30 seconds, or it can last up to three minutes when a person takes a particularly deep breath or moves sharply.

After the victim feels that the pain is gone, it is not time to relax, because it can return. And it returns blunt, like a needle - also in the heart area. In order not to self-medicate, thinking that this is a heart attack, it is necessary to consult a doctor for an examination and thorough diagnosis.

When does the pain come?

Attacks of pain in precordial syndrome can occur at different times during the day, and it is not limited to just one pain attack. Pain attacks can occur 4-5 times a day, or even more often. Doctors have not yet established the exact causes of these pains. The connection between whether a person is worried or not, the nature of his work, how long the clock has ticked, has not yet been established by science. Also, the connection between how great the physical load is that can provoke a pain attack has not been established.

According to some data, pains with precordial syndrome can torment a person if he is in a position where breathing is difficult. It is necessary to avoid such positions if possible and take care of yourself. For example, do not bend over, do not bend low, do not turn your whole body to one side. Doctors have come to the conclusion that pains with precordial syndrome can occur due to pinched nerve roots, which is very painful, as we know.

Treatment

Doctors believe that this disease is not dangerous and usually goes away before the age of 20. In older people, it occurs extremely rarely and also does not last long.

Intercostal neuralgia

With this disease, a person also suffers from pain when inhaling. The pain is then quite strong, it resembles volleys, and is especially strong when inhaling. But there are also less intense pains, then they still cause discomfort to a person.

Intercostal neuralgia is characterized by the fact that pain torments a person primarily on the left side of the chest. This form of the disease often bothers women, and men - much less often.

Because of the pain that is localized in the chest on the left, intercostal neuralgia can be confused with pleurisy or similar lung diseases. But this is not the case. Pain in neuralgia is pain that occurs due to dysfunction of the nervous tissue that has not changed its structure and in which there are no deformations yet.

Neuralgic pain is characterized by the fact that it is not concentrated in one place, but moves throughout the chest.

The pain of neuralgia may not be strong, but nagging, with an unexpected strong pain syndrome. When a person inhales, especially deeply, the chest expands, and severe pain occurs. It can be localized between the ribs - a pair or several ribs. That is why this disease is called intercostal neuralgia.

The pain may increase during coughing, deeper than usual breathing. The pain may also feel like a blunt needle being driven between the ribs. Intercostal neuralgia may also cause numbness in the arms or legs, partial paralysis of one part of the body, muscle atrophy. Such a patient cannot boast of an appetite, and when inhaling, as already mentioned, there is severe pain, which makes the person neither want to eat nor drink.

Doctors have noticed that intercostal neuralgia most often affects women who have experienced severe and constant stress, who cannot get out of a state of depression or are periodically in this state.

Pneumothorax

This is a serious disease, which is also characterized by pain when inhaling. What is pneumothorax? This is when next to the lungs there is nothing more than a cushion of air. This can happen to a person who has never complained about any illnesses before and about whom they say "he is as healthy as a bull!" Pneumothorax can develop due to a blow to the chest, after pneumonia or other lung diseases.

Pneumothorax can be recognized by a strong, cutting and sharp pain in the chest during inhalation. In this case, the very first salvation for a person will be to hold his breath - for as long as he can. It often happens that inhaling in time and holding his breath can eliminate the air cushion near the lungs without medical intervention. But if this does not work, even surgical intervention may be necessary. The air cushion that occupied the lungs is not always removed on its own. This means that a person may continue to suffer from chest pain.

Why does air enter outside the lungs?

Where does this air cushion come from? Pneumothorax itself is when air forms a layer between the chest and the lung. This means that air forms this cushion by getting from the lungs into the chest. There may be other reasons that are quite difficult to establish.

Causes of pneumothorax

This could be primary pneumothorax – it is also called spontaneous. This is the disease that can be diagnosed in a person who previously had almost no complaints and felt well. Doctors have noticed that primary pneumothorax can most often appear in tall people with low weight, that is, thin people. Moreover, the risk group is mainly men – they suffer from this disease 4 times more often than the fairer sex. Also, those who smoke often suffer from pneumothorax due to weakening of the lung walls, which then tear very easily. And another feature of this disease: it mainly affects the age group up to 20 years.

The cause of this disease may be a small rupture of the lung, which the person does not even suspect. Then, near the ruptured (or rather, torn) lung, small air bubbles are formed. They eventually form a small layer of air, which causes such severe pain when inhaling.

Pneumothorax is very easy to confuse with pain in the heart area, because it hurts there. But for a more accurate diagnosis, you need to see a doctor and under no circumstances treat yourself.

Those who have suffered their first attack of pneumothorax should be especially careful, because this disease returns to every third person out of ten. Moreover, it can return within three years after the person suffered this painful attack.

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Secondary pneumothorax (also called spontaneous)

The peculiarity of this disease is that it occurs unexpectedly, that is why pneumothorax is spontaneous. And secondary – because this disease occurs against the background of another disease, most often lung damage. In particular, due to inflammation of the lungs, their tissues are significantly weakened, the edges of the lungs suffer first, they are the most vulnerable. Therefore, they can rupture, and air comes out through these micro-ruptures. It accumulates near the lungs, and severe pain occurs when inhaling. Secondary pneumothorax can also be caused by diseases such as tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, sarcoidosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and lung cancer.

If you experience severe chest pain when inhaling, especially if you have already had one of the lung diseases, be sure to consult a doctor, because delay may result in surgery.

Valvular pneumothorax

This disease is extremely rare and is a rare complication. But it still happens. Its characteristic symptoms are pain when inhaling and shortness of breath. Valve pneumothorax is dangerous because the pain and shortness of breath worsen and can cause death.

Why does this happen?

As a result of a rupture of the edge of the lungs, the entire body suffers, because the ruptured lung becomes a dangerous valve that forces air out of the lungs and does not allow it to return there again. That is, the person is deprived of air, begins to choke, turns blue. The pressure is high, it does not normalize, and the size of the rupture becomes larger. The heart also suffers from this, it stops receiving oxygen. If a person finds himself in such a state, you need to immediately call a doctor, otherwise the person may die.

What other causes can cause pneumothorax?

• These could be chest injuries.
• Chest injury due to accident
• Lung and chest injury due to a fight (knife wound)
• Surgical interventions that provoke pneumothorax (surgeries in the chest area)

To be sure what kind of disease a person has, he or she needs to go for a chest X-ray. The X-ray will definitely reveal abnormalities in the structure of the lungs.

Consequences of pneumothorax

When air leaves the lungs, it can cause minor pain when inhaling and there will be no special consequences. The air layer (small) is absorbed by itself, it is enough to hold your breath. The blood sucks in this air, and the problem is solved. And a small rupture will soon heal, not even three or four days will pass. And minor pain attacks can bother a person for three days, no more. Then pneumothorax does not need treatment, it goes away on its own.

It is advisable to check with an X-ray whether the pneumothorax has disappeared, and with it the pain when inhaling.

It is better to take an x-ray a week or a week and a half after the person has been experiencing pain when inhaling.

But sometimes there is so much air near the lungs, and the rupture of the lungs is so significant (or rather, the second causes the first), that the lungs become irreversibly deformed and cease to perform their function.

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How to remove pneumothorax?

If the pneumothorax is secondary, special attention should be paid to the disease that caused it. Serious treatment is required to avoid serious consequences. In addition, the pneumothorax may have to be removed surgically. Indications for this are the destruction of the lungs and a large amount of air that has accumulated near them. Then the air is pumped out using special tubes that are inserted into the area where the air cushion has formed.

Such air pumping may be required for a person if he has already had pneumothorax, and now there is a relapse. Or doctors may suggest pumping out air in the area near the lungs as a preventive measure. This may not even be a large air cushion, but an air bubble that does not leave the surface of the lungs on its own.

Another way to deal with pneumothorax, and therefore with pain when inhaling, may be to use a special powder. The goal is to irritate the surface of the lungs and even cause a slight inflammation of their tissue. Then the lungs will adhere more tightly to the inner surface of the chest, and the air cushion can be sucked into the blood without the surgeon's intervention.

Pain in the back when inhaling

This type of pain is no less dangerous than chest pain when inhaling. Back pain when inhaling can be caused by pleurisy (we have already described its symptoms). The cause of pain can also be spinal deformity and diseases associated with this unfortunate fact.

Osteochondrosis

This disease, which is diagnosed today in almost every second schoolchild, can be the cause of sharp pains in the chest when a person takes a deep breath. In this case, not only the back can hurt, but also the head, muscles can spasm, goosebumps run through the body, limbs (arms and legs) can go numb or feel cold in them, as if the person is freezing.

Osteochondrosis can manifest itself as pain in the left arm – this is a fairly common symptom. Pain when inhaling can also be caused by shingles against the background of osteochondrosis, which the patient may not even suspect. Then the pain when inhaling can be even stronger.

Lung cancer

We have already mentioned this disease when we described chest pain when inhaling. Lung cancer, like other lung diseases, can cause pain not only in the chest, but also in the back. The pain is quite strong, sharp, acute, there may be a feeling of needles in the back. Pain when inhaling, if a person has lung cancer, can radiate to the right or left side of the body - in general, on one side. This pain can also radiate to the stomach, and to the arm, even to the neck. The more the tumor grows, the stronger the pain will be. You must immediately contact a doctor for surgery.

So, we have considered the main types of pain when inhaling. As we can see, pain in a certain part of the body does not necessarily indicate that the disease is hidden there. Let's say the cause of the pain is the lungs, but the stomach or arm may hurt. But it is an axiom that with pain during inhalation, even minor, a mandatory consultation with a doctor is necessary so as not to miss more serious diseases.