Pain in the right lung
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Pain in the right lung speaks about the existing problem of the body. And this is not always a disease of the respiratory system. Pain can be caused by neurological diseases (neuralgia), pathology of the digestive system, problems with bones (osteochondrosis).
So, let's take a closer look at the types of pain in the right lung. It can be seizures that increase with corners or sharp movements, deep breaths, or with coughing. Sometimes, at the same time as attacks of pain the patient is disturbed by attacks of dry cough, difficulty breathing, pallor, cold sweat, weakness, low blood pressure, cyanotic face and fingers, shallow breathing.
Diseases that cause pain in the right lung
Pleurisy is a pulmonary disease, namely the pathology of the pleural sheets or the pleural cavity. It can be both an independent disease, and the result of chronic pathological processes in the lungs. Pleurisy is classified into dry, exudative or purulent. It usually affects one side of the chest.
Right-sided dry pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleural sheets on the right and the deposition of fibrin on their surface. A patient with right-sided dry pleurisy complains of pain in the right lung with deep breathing or cough, slopes and corners of the body. Most often, the pain is localized in the area of the lower ribs to the right, along the lateral projections of the chest. In the evening, subfebrile fever persists, the patient is worried about sweating, his breathing is superficial and rapid. Painful attacks cause the movement of the pleura, so when a disease occurs, the patient instinctively lies down on the area of soreness and tries to be as immovable as possible, thereby reducing pain in the right lung.
Right-sided exudative pleurisy is a congestion in the pleural cavity on the right of various types of exudate. This pathology occurs with tuberculosis of the pleura and lungs, as well as with certain types of pneumonia. Pain in the right lung, with exudative pleurisy, worries the patient at the very beginning of the disease, while the fluid in the pleura accumulated a little. Along with the pain, difficulty breathing in the affected area, attacks of dry cough. In the affected area, the doctor can listen to a particular noise - the noise of rubbing the inflamed pleura. Gradually, as the fluid in the cavity of the pleura accumulates, the pain subsides, but this does not in any way indicate a recovery. The patient feels heaviness in the chest, complains of shortness of breath, dry cough. At visual inspection, it is possible to detect smoothed or bulging intercostal spaces, palpation reveals the restriction of the chest excursion, there is no voice tremor.
Pneumothorax - a disease that is characterized by the ingress of air into the cavity of the pleura.
Pain in the right lung can be triggered by a random pneumothorax, which can be spontaneous (arising for no apparent reason), traumatic (with chest injuries) or iatrogenic (in the case of foreign bodies in bronchi or lungs - tuberculosis, tumors, abscesses, cyst ruptures ).
Usually spontaneous pneumothorax appears in high and lean people aged between 10 and 30 years. Tobacco smoking increases the risk of spontaneous pneumothorax by approximately 20 times (depending on the intensity of smoking).
Pneumothorax manifests itself with severe pain in the lung, increasing with physical exertion or increased respiration, due to the mobility of the lungs. In this case, painful attacks are prolonged, the patient's condition progressively worsens - weakness, pallor, cold sweat, pressure decrease, face, fingers and toes turn blue. With these symptoms, the patient needs emergency help.
Right-sided pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung tissue. Pneumonia usually has an infectious origin. Late diagnosis and delayed initiation of therapy put the patient at risk, up to a lethal outcome.
The main symptoms of pneumonia are a sharp rise in temperature, cough with sputum, pleural pain, in the case of right-sided pneumonia - pain in the right lung. During the examination, the doctor can note hard breathing, shortening of the percussion sound, increased voice trembling, crepitic wheezing. A fluorogram and an X-ray diffraction map will show the blackout in the affected area.
Osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine is degenerative changes in the thoracic vertebrae of the spine (in intervertebral discs). In the case of chest osteochondrosis, the symptoms of pain are manifested by the type of intercostal neuralgia - the pain can be given in the rib area both in the direction of the scapula and towards the sternum. When palpation of the chest in patients with chest osteochondrosis, local soreness is found in the area of the exit of the spinal nerve. By characteristic features of lung diseases can be distinguished by the absence of cough, dyspnea, elevated body temperature.
Right-sided intercostal neuralgia is an irritation or squeezing of intercostal nerves.
Intercostal neuralgia is characterized by very strong sharp, piercing, aching, burning, dull pain sensations in the region of the ribs, which mimic pain in the right lung. Attacks appear periodically, as a rule on inspiration and sometimes accompanied by muscle contraction, strong pricking in the chest, sweating.
The main causes of the disease can be: trauma of the chest, draft, osteochondrosis, physical exertion, prolonged body finding in an uncomfortable position, hypothermia, etc.
What if you have pain in your right lung?
If you are concerned about pain in the right lung, you should immediately consult a therapist to diagnose the cause of the pain and how to resolve it.
The primary and most common means of diagnosing the chest is fluorography or radiography. With the help of fluorography, they detect pneumonia, tuberculosis, pleurisy and other pathologies of the lungs. If fluorography eliminates lung disease - you need to contact a neurologist to exclude vertebrogenic pain (pain associated with pinching of the spinal nerves).