Pain in the right chest
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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As soon as they call the physical pain of a person: “health watchdog” and “border guard at the outpost between the human body and the external environment”... That's right, because with the painful sensations of different localization, intensity and duration, the human body reacts to any injury or illness. And the main task is to establish the cause of the pain. Let's see what the pain receptors signal when we feel pain in the right chest.
Immediately clarify that the "chest" - a concept that is widely varied in everyday life. If you stick to the concepts of human anatomy, then this is one of the parts of the body formed by the sternum, ribs, spine and muscles, that is, the chest (in Latin - compages thoracis). In the chest is the chest cavity and the upper abdominal. All this - both inside and outside - is surrounded by musculature.
Also, we call the breast the front wall of the chest cavity, and in women - the mammary glands located on it (in Latin - mamma). By the way, men also have breast glands, but they, as completely unnecessary, remain in an underdeveloped state and do not perform any functions.
We consider the pain in the right chest in all variations of the concept of "chest".
Why does the right breast hurt?
Considering that certain organs are located in the right side of the human thorax, the etiology of the painful sensations of this localization is most often associated with them.
Pain in the right chest during a deep breath gives the doctors every reason to assume that a very common disease such as right-sided pneumonia has developed in a person. Right-sided pneumonia is more common in left-sided pneumonia because the right bronchus is shorter and wider than the left one, which contributes to its infection. At the same time, as doctors note, cases of erased right-sided pneumonia - when it proceeds with almost no symptoms - have recently become more frequent.
If the pain in the right chest when inhaling is accompanied by a cough with serous-purulent sputum, then this may be a sign of any other diseases of the lungs and bronchi: bronchitis, pleurisy, tuberculosis, malignant tumor of the lungs.
Pain in the right breast may have muscular or bone etiology. Thus, pain in the muscles on the right side of the chest is often associated with the so-called myofascial pain syndrome - spasm of tense muscles, in which there are painful thickening next to the nerve fibers of muscle tissue. This syndrome is characteristic of athletes and people associated with constant heavy physical exertion.
There will be severe pain in the right breast (on the right side of the sternum) and with intercostal neuralgia. In this pathology, the pain receptors of the peripheral intercostal nerves respond to hypothermia, inflammatory foci, weight lifting, severe stress, sudden movements or a long uncomfortable posture. Acute pain in the right chest - along the ribs - extends to the sternum and increases with any movements and even with breathing.
Dull pain in the right breast (on the right side of the front, side and back walls of the chest) is characteristic of spondylosis of the cervical and thoracic spine, in which due to the growth of bone tissue, the vertebrae are deformed. Pathological spinous growths on the vertebrae (osteophytes) narrow the spinal canal and squeeze the nerve endings. This leads to dull, aching pain in the corresponding part of the spine, which is given in all the walls of the chest. Also, the cause of pain in the right breast, such as intercostal neuralgia, can be thoracic osteochondrosis, which is often confused with pneumonia.
Pain under the right breast and in the upper right abdomen can be caused by acute and chronic diseases of the gallbladder and liver: cholecystitis, gallstone disease, pancreatitis, or hepatitis.
Pain in the right breast in women
Pain in the right breast in women with a normal menstrual cycle is a consequence of the natural hormonal changes that occur in the female body every month. Such pains are called mastodynia and, in the absence of pathology, they are not strong: minor painful sensations cause touching of the mammary gland.
However, increased pain in the right breast may be a sign of fibrocystic breast tissue changes - mastopathy (diffuse and nodular). With diffuse mastopathy, swelling of the right (or left) breast occurs, tissue consolidation, pain and discharge from the nipple appear. Then the disease passes into the second stage - nodular mastopathy. At the same time, the pain in the right breast increases and becomes almost constant, and the size of cystic formations increases.
Pain in the right breast (in some areas of the breast) with a change in its shape, reddening of the skin, suction of the nipple and bleeding - signs of breast cancer.
What is the pain in the right chest?
Acute pain in the right breast - with shortness of breath and attacks of suffocation - may well be a pulmonary embolism, in which there is a blockage of the lumen of the blood vessels of the lungs with a blood clot (a dense blood clot). In this case, the pain occurs suddenly, it becomes difficult to breathe, a dry cough begins, a person sweats heavily and may lose consciousness.
A sharp pain in the right chest (chest) after physical exertion, coughing or for no apparent reason, which radiates to the neck and shoulder and increases with breathing and movements, may indicate the presence of air in the pleural cavity between the chest wall and lungs - pneumothorax.
If a burning pain in the right chest (in the chest on the right) is aggravated by shortness of breath and a wet cough (with purulent sputum), then, apparently, the patient has bronchitis of the second or third stage or inflammation of the lower lobe of the right lung.
The aching pain in the right breast, the exciting axillary region and at times turning into a stabbing pain in the right breast in the absence of seals in the tissues indicates neuralgia.
Constant pulling pain in the right breast in women (that is, in the breast) is most often associated with mastopathy.
Diagnosis of pain in the right breast
Since pain in the right breast occurs in a wide variety of diseases and may be accompanied by many other symptoms, diagnosis is not only based on the examination of the patient and history. As a rule, patients with complaints of this nature are X-ray examination.
Thus, an x-ray of the chest cell makes it possible to identify right-sided pneumonia and promptly proceed to its treatment. With pneumonia, the patient also undergoes a laboratory test of blood and sputum.
Diagnosis of pain in the right breast with pulmonary embolism is performed using computed tomographic angiography (CT angiography) and an electrocardiogram (ECG). X-ray and ultrasound help to identify pneumothorax.
A diagnosis of pain in the right breast (mammary gland) in women is carried out on the basis of a full examination, which includes breast ultrasound, mammography, blood tests for hormones and tumor markers. In addition, for nodular mastopathy, as well as for suspected benign or malignant breast tumors, it may be necessary to take a tissue sample - a biopsy.
Treatment of pain in the right breast
"It is not necessary to treat the result without healing the cause" - the basic principle of the treatment of all pain syndromes.
Pain in the right breast is treated only after the doctor has established an accurate diagnosis. Therapy of pneumonia is aimed at eliminating the focus of inflammation, therefore, doctors prescribe a course of antibiotics. And to relieve cough expectorant drugs are used.
In the treatment of pain in the right breast, associated with intercostal neuralgia, myofascial pain syndrome, spondylosis of the cervical and thoracic spine and thoracic osteochondrosis, experts use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, oral pain medications for oral administration, and local anesthetic relief agents. Various physiotherapy.
Treatment of pain under the right breast and in the upper right abdomen with cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, pancreatitis or hepatitis will be aimed at eliminating the pathological processes in the respective organs, and, as you understand, self-treatment is not the place.
After consulting a breast doctor, who will find out the cause of chest pain, women receive detailed recommendations for the treatment of the disease. In most cases, the treatment of pain in the right breast in women with negative histological samples for oncology is conservative. Reception of diuretic drugs, homeopathic remedies, vitamins, and, if necessary, hormone therapy is prescribed.
Prevention of pain in the right breast
The pain in the right chest that a person feels is a manifestation of a multitude of very different diseases that arise for different reasons. Is it possible to insure that nothing ever hurts here and nowhere?
First of all, it is necessary to treat the diseases you have and to take care of your health, since “who expects to ensure his health, being in laziness, he acts as stupid as a person who thinks in silence to improve his voice”. This was said by the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch.
In Medieval Italy, in the city of Salerno, not far from Naples, there was its own medical school, and in the XIV century the “Salerno Health Code” was written here, which starts like this:
If you want to return health and not to know diseases,
Drive away worries and consider unworthy to be angry,
Dine modestly, forget about wines, do not consider useless to
Wake after eating, avoiding midday sleep.
Do not hold urine for a long time, do not force it with the efforts of a chair;
If you follow this, you will live a long time in the world.
If there are not enough doctors, let your doctors be three:
Cheerful character, rest and moderation in food...